"Outside
Porta Pinciana he had a beautiful palace built in one of his Vineyards,
or Gardens or Villas, however we wish to call it, in which every delight
we might desire or have in this life was to be found. It was entirely
adorned with beautiful antique and modern statues, fine paintings, and
other precious things, including fountains, fishponds and embellishments...",
this is how G. Baglione, a painter and art critic of the period,
described Pope Paul V's (1605-1621) urban innovations. After the
purchase of land and vineyards and the concession of water from the
Acqua Felice aqueduct in the first decade of the 17th century, work on
the construction of the palace began in 1612 and was virtually completed
in one year. Whereas the sculptures which were to decorate the building,
the construction of the aviary by Girolamo Rainaldi (1617-1619) and the
landscaping of the garden took until circa 1620. Apart from the
contribution made by the Flemish architect Vasanzio, the architectural
features are to be attributed above all to Flaminio Ponzio, an
extraordinary architect in whom the Pope and the cardinal placed
absolute trust. Ponzio designed the proportions of the rooms, and the
Doric order on the exterior. He freed its architecture from the
traditional style of other villas, which was more monolithic and
confined, causing unexpected front and side projections to emerge in a
dynamic relationship with the upward movement of the towers, which is
enhanced by the arrangement of the windows and the doors communicating
with the garden avenues on all four sides. The Villa Pinciana was built
as a museum to house fine examples of ancient and modern art, as a music
centre, but also as a place for the contemplation of nature (in the form
of rare plants and animals), of fossil specimens and of modern
technology of the time, i.e. automata, mirrors, bizarre lenses and
special clocks. The villa administered a large farm with vineyards,
vegetable gardens, hunting grounds, stables, barns, dovecotes in the
towers (whose entrance are still visible),a large aviary, an ice store,
a wine cellar and even silkworms. Extremely rare plants imported from
Holland and Indies and a zoological garden completed Cardinal Scipione's
Theatre of the Universe. In contrast with its appearance in 1984, the
glowing façade of the villa set in its green garden, has now been
returned to its original 17th century splendour. the façade's creamy
marble colour and paler background tones have been restored and the
pilaster strips and string-courses are a shade of ivory resembling
travertine. The colour, the Doric order of pilasters and the harmonious
proportions of the whole building are reminiscent of classical
architecture. The original double staircase by F.Ponzio has been
reconstructed and will be surmounted by a copy of an ancient vase with
two cornucopias (the originals are in the Louvre). This replaces the
late 18th-century pyramid-shaped staircase and now provides access to
the lower ground level containing various amenities. The shutters that
altered the original design of the windows have recently been removed.
All the busts and statues on the façades, which had sadly deteriorated
owing to lack of routine maintenance and were eroded by rain, wind, dust
and lichen, have now been restored. Borghese Gallery
The original sculptures and paintings in the Borghese Gallery date back to Cardinal Scipione's collection, the son of Ortensia Borghese - Paolo V's sister - and of Francesco Caffarelli, though subsequent events over the next three centuries entailing both losses and acquisition have left their mark. Cardinal Scipion was drawn to any works of ancient, Renaissance and contemporary art which might re-evoke a new golden age. He was not particularly interested in medieval art, but passionately sought to acquire antique sculpture. But Cardinal Scipione was so ambitious that he promoted the creation of new sculptures and especially marble groups to rival antique works. The statue of Pauline Bonaparte, executed by Canova between 1805 and 1808, has been in the villa since 1838. In 1807, Camillo Borghese sold Napoleon 154 statues, 160 busts, 170 bas-reliefs, 30 columns and various vases, which constitue the Borghese Collection in the Louvre. But already by the 1830s these gaps seem to have been filled by new finds from recent excavations and works recuperated from the cellars and various other Borghese residences. Cardinal Scipione's collection of paintings was remarkable and was poetically described as early as 1613 by Scipione Francucci. In 1607, the Pope gave the Cardinal 107 paintings which had been confiscated from the painter Giuseppe Cesari, called the Cavalier d'Arpino. In the following year, Raphael's Deposition was secretely removed from the Baglioni Chapel in the church of S.Francesco in Perugia and transported to Rome. It was given to the Cardinal Scipione through a papal motu proprio. In 1682, part of Olimpia Aldobrandini's inheritance entered the Borghese collection; it included works from the collections of Cardinal Salviati and Lucrezia d'Este. In 1827 Prince Camillo bought Correggios' celebrated Danäe in Paris.
