From the storerooms to the halls: the paintings of the Borghese Gallery descend the stairs

From Jan. 4 to Feb. 7, 2022, the Borghese Gallery presents the initiative The Paintings Descend the Stairs with the aim of enhancing small treasures that are not usually visible to the public within the museum itinerary and that are kept in the Gallery’s storerooms, located above the exhibition floors.

About fifteen works will enrich the exhibition in rotation: these are small paintings with figures and landscapes, on canvas or panel, but also on copper, mainly from the Flemish school, but not only.

Particularly significant are works by a nucleus of women painters, including Lucia Anguissola’s Portrait of a Lady, probably a portrait of her sister Sofonisba, also a painter. A delicate face framed by light lace and edged in golden light, she holds a string necklace between her fingers.

Also coming down the stairs are The Three Graces, an oil on canvas formerly attributed to Francesco Vanni and Rutilio Manetti, and recently returned to the hand of Ventura Salimbeni. The small painting depicts a landscape embellished with profiles of light, in the manner of Paul Brill, in the center of which are represented the three Graces, according to Greek and Roman mythology, deities linked to the cult of nature and vegetation, or, according to the Neoplatonic view, the three faces of Love, Chastity, Voluptuousness and Beauty, linked to the cult of Venus-Aphrodite.

Pictured is Room XIX of the Borghese Gallery. © Borghese Gallery

From the storerooms to the halls: the paintings of the Borghese Gallery descend the stairs

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