Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2016 Collectors & Collections: classical to contemporary

Cardinal Scipione Borghese

Michael Hill

24/25 August 2016

Lecture summary: Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1577-1633) was nephew to Pope Paul V. As such, he was responsible for papal art policy, in particular the restoration of the early Christian churches. He was also the conduit for accruing family patrimony, which included a vast collection of paintings and ancient and modern sculpture. His crowing glory as patron was a series of epoch-making statues he commissioned from Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 1620s. Shortly before Scipione’s death, Bernini returned to the Cardinal’s household to carve his finest portrait.

Slide list: 1. Caravaggio, Pope Paul V, 1605 2. Ottavio Leoni, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, 1606 3. Antonio Lafrery, Le sette chiese di Roma, 1575 4. San Sebastiano fuori le mura, 4th century, restored 1608-14, Flaminio Ponzio 5. Caravaggio, St Jerome, Galleria Borghese, 1606 6. Raphael, Deposition, Galleria Borghese, 1508 7. Cavalier D’Arpino, Copy of Raphael’s Deposition, Gall Naz Perugia, 1608 8. Villa Borghese, 1607-13, Flaminio Ponzio 9. San Crisogono, 1123, restored 1618-1626, Giovanni Battista Soria 10. Santa Maria della Vittoria, 1608-20, façade 1625, Giovanni Battista Soria 11. Bernini, Hermaphrodite’s mattress, Louvre, 1620 12. Bernini, Pluto and Persephone, Galleria Borghese, 1621 13. Bernini, David, Galleria Borghese, 1623 14. Bernini, Apollo and Daphne, Galleria Borghese, 1623 15. Bernini, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, Galleria Borghese, 1632

Reference:

Research for this lecture is embodied in two articles, replete with further citations: available at: https://nassydney.academia.edu/MichaelHill Michael Hill "The Patronage of a Disenfranchised Nephew: Cardinal Scipione Borghese and the Restoration of S. Crisogono, 1618-28", Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 60 n.4, 2001, 432-449. Michael Hill, "Cardinal Dying: Bernini's Bust of Scipione Borghese", Australian Journal of Art, vol. 14, 1998, 9-24

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