The Galleria Borghese is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was originally integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens.
The museum is in a large park, formerly the estate grounds and complete with a zoo. The museum itself was beautiful and full of more wonderful and ancient artwork. We spent two hours immersed in the glory of the past.
In the very first room of the museum we saw the installation above. It is a depiction of the "Slaughter of the Innocents" and I assumed it was an early version of animation. We found out later it was a contemporary piece.
Every five or ten minutes, the room would darken and the piece would start to rotate. Once the piece got up to speed, a strobe light would start and the figures would become animated. While fascinating, it was also disturbing. As the name indicates, babies were being slaughtered.
So, it was on to the next room. The gallery is in what was once a large mansion and every room is beautiful in it's own right. Besides being filled with paintings and sculptures, there were also beautiful frescos. In the center of the next room was the sculpture of "Apollo and Daphne" by Bernini.
As the story goes, both Appollo and Daphne were shot by cupids arrow. The problem was that Apollo was shot by an arrow of love and Daphne by a love repelling arrow. When Apollo, overcome by love, finally catches Daphne who is overcome by the opposite emotion, she changes into a laural tree. If you look closely at the photos above, you can see her flesh becoming bark and branches.
Many analogies to modern life came to light, especially " no means no".
Room after room we were greeted with splendid art works from past centuries.
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| Unknown mother and child |
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| David with his sling shot |
As usual, it was time to eat. We set out down an adjacent boulevard in search of food. Now, in Rome, that should be an easy task. But, this part of the city was a bit different and more modern. To our surprise, even after walking for several blocks, we never did find that great little place that existed in our minds. We did see a Ferrari dealership and of all things a Harley Davidson dealer. I knew they were around, Harley's that is. We would see and more likely hear them from time to time in the city. Roman Harley riders, like American devotees, love to create a deafening roar as they blast through streets, loud and proud.
So, after being unable to find lunch, we went back into the park grounds of the Villa Borghese. As we strolled along in the sunshine my feet and legs told me that they love and crave the softness of walking on the earth. I am constantly on hard surfaces at this point in my life and crave the soft carpet of grass for walking.
The park was lovely and after passing several musicians and seeing a colorful parrot glide from tree to tree, we happened on a Roman food/gelato truck. These trucks seem to be made by the same factory since they all resemble each other very closely. They are colorful and when seen driving they are about the size of a small RV, perhaps on a 1 1/2 or 2 ton chassis.
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| Gelato Truck |
As we wandered on in the sunshine, we came on a small orange grove, part of the estate in a fenced area near what looked to be a conservatory of some sort. A short distance further along we came to the zoo entrance but more importantly, the zoo cafe. As usual we were able to refresh ourselves with cappuccino for €1, this time sitting in the sunshine next to a banana tree.
Our day at the Borghese was during one of the more intense snowstorms the northeast U.S.A. had in January, so we were sure to get pictures of ourselves by the banana tree in the sunshine. With some sort of perverse pleasure, the pictures were sent out to the frozen northeast.
Beautifully done Keith!
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