Editorial Reviews
Book Description
In 1775 Prince Marcantonio Borghese IV and the architect Antonio Asprucci embarked upon a decorative renovation of the Villa Borghese. Initially their attention focused on the Casino, the principal building at the villa, which had always been a semi-public museum. By 1625 it housed much of
the Borghese's outstanding collection of sculpture. Integrating this statuary with vast baroque ceiling paintings and richly ornamented surfaces, Asprucci created a dazzling and unified homage to the Borghese family, portraying its legendary ancestors as well as its newly born heir.
In this book, Carole Paul reads the inventive decorative program as a set of exemplary scenes for the education of the ideal Borghese prince. Her wide-ranging essay also situates the Villa Borghese among the sumptuous palaces and suburban villas of Rome's collectors of antiquities and outlines the
renovated Casino's pivotal role in the historic transition from the princely collection to the public museum. Rounding out this volume is a catalog of the Getty Research Institute's fifty-nine drawings for the refurbishing of the Villa Borghese and Alberta Campitelli's discussion of sketches for
the short-lived Museo di Gabii, the Villa's other antiquities museum.
About the Author
Carol Paul is a lecturer in the history of art and architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Alberta Campitelli is director of the Unit Organizzativa di Ville e Parchi Storici, Sovraintendenza Beni Culturali, Comune di Roma.
Making a Prince's Museum: Drawings for the Late-Eighteenth-Century Redecoration of the Villa Borghese (Bibliographies and Dossiers Series),Carole Paul,Getty Trust Publications: Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities,0892365390,1723-1808,18th century,Architectural drawing,Architecture,Art,Asprucci, Antonio,,California,Casino Borghese (Rome, Italy),Catalogs,Drawing,European,Historic Preservation,History,International Architecture - European,Italy,Los Angeles,Public, Commercial, or Industrial Buildings,Rome,Art & Architecture | History | 18th C European,Art / History / European
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