The Layout of the Visit
The Galleria Borghese is divided into two floors. The ground floor (Rooms I–X) is dominated by sculptures and a nucleus of paintings — including the Caravaggios. The upper floor (picture gallery, Rooms XI–XX) holds the paintings: Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Antonello da Messina.
The ground floor route proceeds anticlockwise, from Room I to Room X, returning to the entrance hall.
Room I — Canova's Pauline Borghese
The first room holds the masterpiece of the ground floor: Antonio Canova's Venus Victrix (1805–1808). Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister and wife of Camillo Borghese, is portrayed reclining as Venus holding the golden apple, bare from the waist up.
The marble is worked with a lightness that seems impossible: the surface is not polished like classical marble, but silky, as if reproducing the temperature of skin. Tradition holds that Canova used a secret technique to soften the finish. When asked how she had agreed to pose nude, Pauline replied: "The studio was heated."
Room II — Bernini's Rape of Proserpina
The Hall of Hades holds the Rape of Proserpina (1621–1622), carved by Gian Lorenzo Bernini at the age of 23 in under a year.
The scene captures the moment Pluto seizes Proserpina to drag her to the Underworld. The breathtaking detail is the anatomical one: Pluto's fingers sink into Proserpina's thigh and back as if the marble were flesh. This is not an optical illusion — the stone is actually carved in depression. This room demands circling the sculpture: Proserpina's three-quarter head, the tears on her face, are visible only from a precise angle.
Room III — Bernini's Apollo and Daphne
The absolute masterpiece of the collection: Apollo and Daphne (1622–1625). Bernini catches Daphne's metamorphosis at the precise instant of transformation: her fingers lengthen into laurel branches, her hair becomes leaves, her skin turns to bark — and her face still expresses human terror.
The composition is designed to be walked around: from the front it appears as a hunt; circling it, the metamorphosis unfolds progressively. On the base is a Latin inscription commissioned by Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (the future Pope Urban VIII): whoever pursues fleeting beauty finds only bitter leaves.
Room IV — David and the Aeneas Group by Bernini
The Hall of Aeneas holds two works:
- Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius (1618–1619): the nineteen-year-old Bernini depicts the flight from Troy — three generations stacked in an ascending spiral.
- David (1623–1624): unlike the Renaissance David (Michelangelo, Donatello), this one is in full action, at the moment of the throw. The face — tense, focused, the lower lip bitten — is a self-portrait of Bernini studying himself in a mirror while Scipione held it.
Room V — The Sleeping Hermaphrodite
The Room of the Hermaphrodite holds the Roman copy (2nd century AD) of a Hellenistic original: the Sleeping Hermaphrodite, an androgynous figure lying on a mattress. The marble mattress is an addition by Bernini (1620), commissioned by Scipione Borghese to complete the ancient sculpture. The deception is perfect: Bernini's marble imitates the softness of a stuffed cushion.
Rooms VI–VII — The Antique
The central rooms house Roman floor mosaics (2nd–3rd century AD) depicting gladiators and hunting scenes, and a series of ancient sculptures: imperial busts, sarcophagi, mythological figures. This is not the most visited section, but the floor mosaics merit a pause: they are among the most extensive preserved in Rome.
Rooms VIII–X — The Paintings of the Ground Floor
The last three rooms on the ground floor hold the paintings not displayed upstairs:
- Room VIII: Caravaggio's Sick Bacchus and Boy with a Basket of Fruit
- Room IX: Caravaggio's Madonna of the Palafrenieri, David with the Head of Goliath, Saint Jerome Writing, Saint John the Baptist
- Room X: Lucas Cranach the Elder (Venus and Cupid, 1531), other sixteenth-century paintings
With a Private Driver
Reach the Galleria Borghese with a private driver. From your hotel, airport or station — direct and on time. Service from €49. → Book at myromedriver.com
Frequently Asked Questions
How much time should I allocate to the ground floor? A minimum of 60–75 minutes to see the main sculptures properly. The upper floor takes the remaining time.
Are the Caravaggios on the ground floor or the upper floor? On the ground floor, in Rooms VIII and IX.
Should I walk around Bernini's sculptures? Yes, especially Apollo and Daphne and the Rape of Proserpina: the composition is designed to be seen from multiple angles.
Article no. 165 — TIER S — MON-09 Galleria Borghese Type: HISTORICAL Words: ~750