Centauro cavalcato da Amore Replica romana dell’epoca di Adriano di un originale del II secolo a. C

Ermafrodito dormiente Replica antica di un originale greco del 150‐140 a.C. ca. attribuito a Policleto

Sileno e Bacco fanciullo I‐II sec. d.C, replica da un originale di Lisippo (seconda metà IV sec. a.C)

From December 7, 2011 until April 9, 2012, the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale di Roma, headed by Rossella Vodret, will present an exhibition entitled The Borghese Family and Antiquity, organized by the Galleria Borghese with the exceptional cooperation of the Musée du Louvre in Paris. The most important masterpieces of ancient art that once belonged to the Borghese collection and now constitute the core of the collection of antiquities of the Musée du Louvre will return to their original home.

The Borghese Family and Antiquity is curated by Anna Coliva (Director - Galleria Borghese), Marie-Lou Fabréga-Dubert (Chargée de mission - Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines - Musée du Louvre), Jean-Luc Martinez (Directeur Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines - Musée du Louvre), and Marina Minozzi (Director-Coordinator Art Historian - Galleria Borghese); coordinated by MondoMostre; and made possible by the support of Arcus, Enel, BNL BNP Paribas, Ferrero, and Air France.

An exceptional and unique event, the exhibition celebrates Italy's historical and artistic heritage in connection with the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification.

For the first time after 200 years, 60 well-known works will return to the Galleria Borghese, including the Borghese Vase, with Dionysian scenes; the Hermaphroditus Asleep, which was restored by Bernini when he was very young; the Silenus and the Infant Bacchus; The Three Graces; and the famous Cupid Astride a Centaur, which has never before left the Parisian museum.

For four months the Galleria Borghese will host the masterpieces of the largest and most important collection of antiquities in the world, thus returning the collection established by Cardinal Scipione Borghese to its original home. The archeological heritage of the "Borghese marbles", which is now the classical glory of the Louvre, constituted one of the most "sensational sales ever made". In 1807, Camillo Borghese, Pauline Bonaparte's husband, agreed to sell 695 sculptures, vases, and reliefs to France as insisted by his brother-in-law, Napoleon, who was pursuing his self-laudatory goal of endowing the capital of his empire with the most important public museum of universal art: the Musée du Louvre, formerly the Musée Central des Arts, which between 1803 and 1815 was called the Musée Napoléon.

Entrusted by Napoleon with the task of appraising the Borghese collection in view of its purchase, Ennio Quirino Visconti, a famous antiquarian, was responsible for the most important acquisition among all the Louvre's collections of ancient art. The idea that inspired the project was well expressed by Denon, the director of the imperial museums, who knew how to flatter the emperor's pride. In all the letters on the subject that he sent the latter he never neglected to associate the fine arts with the imperial prestige, writing the emperor ("the most powerful patron of the fine arts and the leading ruler of Europe") that "the century of Napoleon must be the century of the fine arts, as it is that of heroes". Thus the privileged choice of ancient art was to contribute to the prestige of the emperor, who proclaimed himself the heir of the Roman spirit. Visconti and Denon intended to reject "modern" works, convinced as they were that only ancient art could enrich scholarship and mould "true taste". Napoleon's determination to acquire the Borghese collection corresponded to the antiquarian Visconti's scholarly expectations of encouraging the progress of scholarship (through the study of the works acquired) and contributing to the education of artists through the study of the ancient models, but also satisfied the public's taste and thus contributed to establishing the identity of the citizens and the emperor as heirs of the classical spirit.

The works were shipped to Paris in two stages, which are well documented by the material housed in the National Archives in Paris and the Library of Besançon. The finest woks left in two convoys by land, while the others - which initially were to be transported by sea - arrived at the museum in Paris only in 1811, also by land. The second shipment was made possible by the action of the French commissioner, Pierre-Adrien Pâris, who was appointed by the French Minister of Home Affairs and entrusted with the packing and shipment of the objects acquired.

The commercial value of the objects initially calculated by Visconti was about 6 million francs, but the final sum actually established for the sale was 13 million francs. The increase in the price, which doubled in less than a year from the estimate to the signing of the sale contract, can be explained by a few observations. First of all, Prince Camillo was in no hurry to sell and thus had to be encouraged to enter into the transaction. Furthermore, the sale price had to include the restoration work necessary after the invasive work to remove the sculptures and reliefs from the Villa's architecture. The sum agreed on was in effect only partly paid. Of the 13 million francs, 8 were paid, while the remaining sum was to be only partially covered by the transfer of the Lucedio estate in Piemonte, near Vercelli, where Camillo moved as the governor general of the transalpine departments of the French empire.

The establishment of the Borghese collection of antiquities is attributed to the Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Paul V, who purchased two collections within a short period of time. The first was Lelio Ceoli's, which he acquired in 1607 and housed in the mansion built by Sangallo on Via Giulia, followed immediately, in 1609, by the sculptor Giovanni Battista Della Porta's. Initially meant for the Borghese palazzo in the Campo Marzo and the one in Borgo, as well as their villa on the Quirinal Hill, the sculptures of these two collections were soon almost entirely moved to their villa outside the city walls beginning in 1613.

The importance of the sculptures in the decoration of the new building was evident right from its exterior, as the statues and reliefs constituted the precious ornamentation of the façades and lined the paths and squares facing the "Villa Borghese".

At the end of the eighteenth century, when the Villa Borghese was renovated by Prince Marcantonio Borghese, it was again the sculptures that determined the focal points of the arrangement. The architect Antonio Asprucci arranged the most important masterpieces of the famous Borghese collection according to a new criterion of display, placing them in the middle of each room and linking the entire decorative theme of the setting, from the walls to the ceiling, to the sculptural group. Thus he created the look with which the museum still appears today, with his magnificent marbles, semi-precious stones, and mosaics.

Following their sale to Napoleon, between the end of 1807 and 1808 the sculptures were transported from the Villa to Paris. The loss of this extraordinary collection made a very strong impression at the time. Antonio Canova, who had enthusiastically studied Antiquity, is said to have told Napoleon in 1810 that it was "an indelible shame" for the family that owned "the most beautiful villa in the world". Referring to papal legislation, Cardinal Casoni tried every possible way to save the Borghese collection from being sold to Napoleon. However, his attempt was unsuccessful, because the political scene in Rome was totally dominated by the French at that time.

After the "calamitous" sale, Camillo tried to revive the collection as much as possible with archeological finds from excavations and purchases, some of which were of considerable importance, such as the Dancing Faun, which was restored by Bertel Thorvaldsen. The new acquisitions made during the nineteenth century constitute the current archeological collection housed in the Galleria Borghese.

The vicissitude of the sale of the Borghese collection was so shocking that it led to greater awareness of the risk threatening Italian works of art and laid the foundations of the first real measures for protecting the national artistic heritage, such as Cardinal Pacca's edict, which was issued in 1820 and adopted by many governments before the unification of Italy.

The selection of the works in the exhibition focuses on the most famous sculptures of the Borghese collection, which will be displayed in the room that celebrated their importance, according to the criteria that can be reconstructed for the different arrangements. On the ground floor the exhibition will present the arrangement conceived by the architect Antonio Asprucci in the late eighteenth century. Through the drawings of Charles Percier, of which large reproductions will be displayed, the sculptures will be placed so as to evoke the Villa as it appeared at the end of the eighteenth century. During the exhibition it will be possible to really "jump back in time", to the years in which all of Europe looked to the Villa Borghese as the new model for displaying and interpreting Antiquity.

The second floor of the Villa will present the 18th-century arrangement, in which the sculptures were displayed together with paintings in a fascinating series of images. Several of the masterpieces, such as the Three Graces and the Cupid Astride a Centaur will return to the rooms that bore their names for over a century and a hal.

The catalogue is published by Skira.

PRESS OFFICE

Soprintendenza Speciale per il PSAE
e per il Polo Museale della Città di Roma
Anna Loreta Valerio with Alessandro Gaetani
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MondoMostre Sveva Fede
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MondoMostre - Federica Mariani
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