Rome 2025 - Galleria Borghese

The Borghese Gallery is chock full of masterpieces, telling so many stories! It's impossible to fully examine them all in just the two hours that one ticket gets you!

To really see, go to my photo album - there are captions and description plaques. I did get a little warning on just how much there was to see by reading this description before going. See also the museum's website - full of descriptions!

I did separate posts for a couple of stunning masterpieces, both by Bernini: Apollo and Daphne, and The Abduction of Proserpina 

Meanwhile, here's just a sample of the rest...

Abduction of Proserpina 

Death of a Virgin 

A scene from the Aeneid, where the hero Aeneas leads his family from burning Troy (Bernini)

Paris, nude with the exception of a pileus – a Phrygian cap

Mosaic 

Satyr on a dolphin

Holy Family with the Infant Baptist and Saint Elizabeth

Saint Sebastian tended by the pious women

Caravaggio's St. Jerome

Abduction of Europa 

Marcus Curtius - see the story here

Marcus Curtius leaping into the chasm, saving Rome 

Portrait of Paolina Borghese Bonaparte as Venus Victrix

1804-1806

Bernini's David, created after Michelangelo's version. While Michelangelo's David is shown after having slung the stone, Bernini's shows David winding up, concentrating fiercely!

Fresco of hunters

Lot's Daughters 

Concert

The Last Supper - JACOPO BASSANO

An Amazon and two greek warriors

This painting shows an entire sequence, all at once: Diana is the goddess of the hunt, shown here bathing with her nymphs. Acteon (at the far right, in the bushes) happens upon the scene, angering Diana. She turns him into a stag, and the hunt is on! His own dogs run him down, and the hunters bring the stag in.

DOMENICHINO
The Hunting of Diana

Vecellio - Sacred and Profane Love

Vecellio - Venus Blindfolding Cupid
1560-1565 circa

RAFFAELLO
Deposition of Christ 1507

Cavaspina

 - Boy with Thorn

 - before 1608

CORREGGIO
Danae
1530-1531

Venus and Cupid with a honeycomb

Lucretia

Marcus Curtius (detail)

After the galleria, we walked through part of the gardens - here's a fountain made of seahorses!

~~~

We took the bus there and back - it was *very* crowded on that Sunday afternoon!

Also to note: We pre-purchased and printed our tickets. They are good only for those two hours. When we arrived, all were sold out for the day. You have to check any bags (even a small purse) at "the coat check" *but* they won't take coats... So, go to the bag-check line first, then the entrance line. We were able to borrow a wheelchair, but the arrangement was a bit different - you take a small elevator to each floor (museum employees run it for you; it's restricted), where you get a wheelchair just for that floor.

A few of the "must-see" works were not there - we assume they were either on loan or being cleaned.

There were *plenty* of others!