The Halls of the gallery
AURORA Hall
01
Aurora
Upon entering the gallery, one is greeted by a canvas depicting the Aurora by Francesco Caccianiga, personified by a female figure scattering flowers offered to her by a pair of cherubs. Around her, on one side is the torch of the new day, chasing away the darkness of Night, while a rooster on the opposite side of the image crows for the arrival of light. The winds blow new air, while a woman pours water from a vase, perhaps referring to the fountains in the garden in front, as does the bare-breasted nymph with two shells in her hand.
Aurora, sister of Helios (the god of the Sun) and Selene (goddess of the Moon), crosses the skies in a horse-drawn chariot and announces the coming of dawn. Rebirth, renewal, hope, potential inherent in all new courses of human affairs: art historians have interpreted these elements in Caccianiga’s Aurora as the announcement of a new era of splendor for the Borghese dynasty.
AUDIENCE Hall
02
Audience
The main gallery room is striking for a lively set of colors in the vault and a distinctly Baroque character, although the realization of the fresco like those in the adjacent rooms is from the second half of the 18th century.
The author is Ermenegildo Costantini,
who worked in Rome in several churches, including Santa Caterina da Siena in Via Giulia. In the center of the image is the Borghese coat of arms, eagle and dragon surmounted by the prince’s crown, ascends into the sky surrounded by putti, with a set of stucco clouds that at the sides overlap the gilded frame resulting in a three-dimensional effect that gives depth to the ceiling.
The scheme is exactly that of the vaulting by Francesco Gaulli, known as Baciccio,
executed in the Church of Gesù about 100 years earlier.
The female figures depicted on the sides are the Arts and Sciences-Architecture, Philosophy, Astronomy, Literature, Music, Sculpture-bowing before the magnificence of the Prince.
The name of the hall suggests that it was dedicated to the reception of the visitors who came in large numbers in the era of the Grand Tour to admire the ruins of Rome and the collections of noble families.
Hebe Hall
03
Hebe
In the corner overlooking Piazza Borghese is the Hall of Hebe, named for the central painting by Ermenegildo Costantini, the same author of the Audience Room, which depicts the abduction of Hebe, goddess of youth, at the hands of Time.
The snake biting its tail, in the hands of a putto in the upper left corner of the fresco, is traditionally symbolic of time flowing seamlessly, and the small crab at the bottom is believed to be a reminder of youth. The reference
to Bernini’s sculptural group depicting the Rape of Proserpine is quite obvious, so much so as to suggest that the sculpture may have been in this room for a period of time. The gilded wooden frame with a succession of eagles and dragons emphasizes the richness of the decoration and reiterates the coat of arms of the household.
Several documents from the 18th-century period testify to the presence in this room of works of great renown, such as Caravaggio’s Child with Basket of Fruit or Raphael’s Deposition of Christ.
Cupid Hall
04
Cupid
The room takes its name from the central fresco by Frenchman Laurent Pécheux, who on commission from the same patron was also the author of the vault of one of the rooms in the Borghese Gallery. A painter originally from Lyon, he stayed several years in Rome on various commissions from noble families.
The image in the vault depicts the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche and on the walls to the side, in tempera, two episodes belonging to the same story, Jupiter kissing Cupid and Mercury flying to Psyche to lead her to Olympus, framed by beautiful male nudes monochromes with garlands of flowers, ears of corn, grapes and dried leaves, alluding to the four seasons.
Still in the mock bas-reliefs are the four elements Air, Fire, Water and Earth depicted by the characters related to them: Aeolus, Vulcan, Neptune and Pan, and the painter’s autograph signature with date 1775 at the top on the west wall.
Minerva Hall
05
Minerva
Pietro Angeletti’s Reconciliation of Venus and Minerva adorns the ceiling of the right room, with two large windows overlooking the nymphaeum.
Apollo, Mars and Mercury witness the ceremony while putti raise a drape to serve as a backdrop along with the cloud. On the side walls another author painted some episodes from the Trojan War, the most obvious of which is the Trojan Horse on the east wall.
