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BORGHESE COLLECTION
The Borghese Collection is a collection of Roman sculptures, old masters and modern art collected by the Roman Borghese family, especially Cardinal Scipione Borghese, from the 17th century on. It includes major collections of Caravaggio, Raphael, and Titian, and of ancient Roman art. The Borghese also bought widely from leading painters and sculptors of his day, and Scipione Borghese's commissions include two portrait busts by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.[1][2] Most of the collection remains intact and on display at the Galleria Borghese, although a significant sale of classical sculpture was made under duress to the Louvre in 1807.
Scipione Borghese
Cardinal Scipione Borghese, an important art collector, was the collection's instigator and collected the majority of the collection. His collection 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 studio of the painter Cavalier D'Arpino. In the following year, Raphael's Deposition was removed by force from the Baglioni Chapel in the church of San Francesco in Perugia and transported to Rome to be given to the Cardinal Scipione through a papal motu proprio.
Later additions
In 1682, part of Olimpia Aldobrandini's inheritance entered the Borghese collection; it included works from the collections of Cardinal Salviati and Lucretia d'Este.
[edit] Housing the collection
Scipione developed a large estate and vineyard on the Pincian hill in Rome into a vast garden and complex of palaces, the Villa Borghese, to house his collection. He also used the Villa Mondragone for this purpose. In 1775, in homage to his Borghese ancestors, Prince Marcantonio IV Borghese and the architect Antonio Asprucci embarked upon renovations to Villa Borghese, which had always been a semi-public museum since the 17th century. Integrating the sculptures of the Borghese collection and existing vast Baroque ceiling decors, they created a spectacular monument to the Borghese family (Paul 2000).
![[2]](http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/bernini/borghese.jpg.html){kind=link}