Rome, Borghese Gallery kicks off a series of free tours dedicated to frescoed vaults

In Rome, the Galleria Borghese is kicking off an in-depth tour dedicated to the museum’s cycle of painted vaults. The itinerary is titled, with a hint of irony, Once Upon a Time, and takes place from Friday, December 15, 2023 to Friday, February 9, 2024. The initiative was created to highlight the extraordinary redevelopment work of the villa promoted by Prince Marcantonio IV Borghese in the late 18th century (1770-1800). An extraordinary work, little known, that saw a radical renovation of the building and the updating of the interior decoration.

The commission was given to the architect Antonio Asprucci (Rome, 1723 - 1808), of great fame and talent, one of the first to introduce Neoclassicism as an architectural style in Rome. Asprucci, who availed himself of the collaboration of a renowned team of Italian and foreign artists, including Gavin Hamilton, Tommaso Conca, Mariano Rossi, the quadraturist Giova Battista Marchetti, and others, conceived the surfaces of the rooms as settings for the ancient and modern marbles already present in the building. The walls were covered with marble stucco polychromes, the beautiful seventeenth-century fireplaces were replaced with others known as “French style,” leaning against the wall and adorned with precious materials, and the vaults were broken up by elegant architectural quadratures, with precious stucco frames and in the center paintings whose subject was in close dialogue with the masterpiece placed in the center. The whole decorative cycle of the vaults took on a descriptive character, intended for the guest of the Villa Pinciana, and aimed at exalting the Borghese family and its ancient origins.

The tour consists of visits that take place Tuesday through Friday, excluding the Christmas holiday period, every day at 11:30 a.m. departing from the museum’s information desk next to the ticket office. The tour lasts about 40 minutes and includes a dedicated tour of Rooms I, II and III of the Gallery. The initiative is free of charge but reservations are required at 06 67233755 (Monday to Friday, 2 to 5 p.m.). Therefore, you do not need a museum ticket to participate: however, if you participate without a ticket, you will not be able to continue the visit (you will therefore need to buy the normal entrance ticket).

Rome, Borghese Gallery kicks off a series of free tours dedicated to frescoed vaults

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