After our jam packed morning of touring the Vatican and St. Peter's Cathedral, we took a brief break before heading to the Borghese Gallery. We walked to Termini train station to catch Bus 910 which dropped us off next to the Borghese Gardens, a large park that once was the home and property of the Borghese family. Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1576-1633) built the villa specifically to house his impressive personal art collection so he could enjoy entertaining the VIPs of his day. While there is a lot of impressive art and the building itself is a treasure to walk through, the main draw is for two artists -- Bernini and Caravaggio.
Gian L. Bernini was one of Italy's foremost sculptors. Several of his major works are displayed here. The realism is striking and it is amazing to see how he can transform marble into such life-like representations. His
David (1624) shows David in action getting ready to sling his rock at Goliath, not merely posing. I look forward to seeing Michelangelo's
David when we visit Florence later in our trip. Caravaggio is the nickname of Michelangelo Merisi and he is known for his realism in painting as well as his strong contrast between light and dark. The Borghese Gallery has the single best collection of Caravaggio paintings displayed in one place.
You definitely should plan ahead to visit the Borghese Gallery. We used our Roma pass which allows us into two attractions for free, but even so, you must still make a reservation for a specific date and time which I did by calling ahead from home before we left for our trip. Every two hours beginning at 9am, 360 people are admitted for two hours. You must leave at the end of your time so the next group can come in. We made our reservations for 5pm and were in the last group of the day. I noticed a sign on the door when we entered that said no tickets were available until 3 days later, so it does pay to plan ahead. This isn't a particularly large museum, so two hours worked out just fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment