Lesson 8: Villa Borghese (painting)

Main loggia
• This was not enclosed in glass. There is a monument in the room that was for the King of France. There are also three portraits of Bernini. The gaze of Bernini is very intense. There are also two busts for Scipione Birghese.
• The fresco by Lanfranco (creator of the Dome in Sant’Andrea)

The next room
• Painting of the flight from Troy. This painting also has Creusa (the wife who is left out of the sculpture by Bernini). This is by Baracci. This would have been behind the sculpture. It would be another example of the play of all of the arts.
Domenichino, Diana and Her Nymphs, Originally for Cardinal Aldobrandini but “bought” by Scipione Borghese, possible advisor: Agucchi, 1617-18. Based on the Metamorphoses by ovid, that long poetic tradition of the “archers’ competition” (Homer, Virgil, Sannazzaro, Marino, Alamanni, etc.) and the poetic tradition about the “dangers of Beauty” (plato, Valerian, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Ficino Bembo, Tasso, etc)

Background of soceity
• Domenichino was imprisoned by Borghese so that he could get this painting.
• Agucci was the possible advisor. He was a philosopher.
• All of the cardinals in Rome would compete with art. They would use this as propaganda. This shows the cardinal’s power and how cultivated he is.
The Painting
• Who is Diana? She is the goddess of hunting and the moon. As we can see in the painting, she is wearing a crown with a half moon on her crown.
• She is holding an archer’s competition, much like the Olympic games of Diana. She is holding awards.
• There are 5 nymphs in competition with each other. They are archers and are in competition with each other. They want to get the bird that is on the upper right part of the painting.
• There are other nymphs who are cheering.
• In the background the nymphs are training. One if body building, running, dancing, and two are hunting. The two that are just coming back from hunting a stag are looking at us.
• Analysis of the 5 archers
o 1- dressed in white with a basket- she has already tried, but she probably did not hit anything.
o 2 – dressed in white and blue- she tried and is waiting for the response of the 3rd one.
o 3 – she hit the bird in the eye.
o 4 and 5- they do not even want to try.
• The bird that the archers were trying to hit is going to fall on the bush. Behind the bush are men. The bird is going to fall on the men.
o What is going to happen?
• This relates to the story of Acteon in the metamorphoses by Ovid. Acteon is a hunter and was walking into the forest of Diana. He was Diana and her nymphs dancing naked. She saw him and turned him into a stag. Then he was killed by his own dogs. This story tells us not to spy of Diana or else she is going to kill you.
• The men are spying on the nymphs. There is dog who is going to get the bird and one of the birds is looking at himself in the water (this is like Narcisuss). Once the dogs go and get the bird, the men (who are telling us to be quiet as to not disturb the nymphs) are going to be found out.
• There is a young nymph who is looking at us. She is the most naked one on the painting. This means that we are also intruders. This means that we are in danger whenever we are in front of this painting.
• The Archers’ Competition
o In western literature is important. It was used by Homer, Virgil, Sannazzaro, Marino, Alamanni, etc.
o In the late middle ages / Renaissance it was considered poetic license to use this reference. What is poetic license? It is when the poet can change the subject matter to anything he wants to. This means the that archers can be transformed into anything that the poet desires. In the past the archers’ competition have been represented by different creatures/animals. This means that the archers competition is a symbol of poetic license.
• What does this mean about the artist? Domenichino is taking the competition as his own. He is now a poet.
• Beware of Beauty
o The bird is hit in the eye. This shows that beauty is dangerous. It tells us that we should not by looking at Diana and her nymphs. Beauty in general is dangerous. Diana will kill you if she sees that you are looking at her. Love is often thought of as a disease because love starts through your eyes. The eyes are the recipients of love. Eyes transfers to the heart.
• Frustration of sight
o This is also an example of the frustration of sight. This makes the subject matter very appropriate for a painting. The illusions of the painting are different than the illusions of sculpture.
• The 5 archers is a pictorial competition is heavily based on Michelangelo’s drawings.
• Pastoral Landscape
o The forest is a very humid. This is called a pastoral landscape. The landscape is where the gods and mortals would meet. This is where people turn into nature.
o The park in Villa Borghese is a pastoral landscape. It is as if the paintings/art comes from the garden. It is inspired by the gardens.

Caravaggio, Self Portrait as Sick Bacchus (Bacchino Malato), c. 1594

• Dirty fingers, sick face, gray-green skin.
• Engages viewers but separates viewer from painting
• Different than frontal. ¾ view. This is almost back view.
• Turning toward painter
o Classical ritaratto di spalla (portrait seen from shoulder). Invented/elaborated in the renaissance
o There is darkness in the background and light in the foreground.
o This also creates a dialogue
• Painting by Titian, supposed to react, only have a second to engage the face, psych, dialogue, emotional viewer supposed to respond, fill in meaning, then have time to see the beauty of the painting.
• Bacchus statue by Michelangelo (first in Rome) has smaller Bacchis figure in Ritratto di spalla posture. Where he got inspiration , competing with sculpture of Michelangelo.
• We know Caravaggio was sick in the hospital for a time painting reality of Bacchic state, reality of creativity, artistic coma.
• Hard to attach meaning to his work.
• All dramatic close ups of figures, not narrative like Carraci.
• Bacchus is a symbol of the resurrection
o Bacchus represents God. He is the god of wine. Wine is related to Christianity. Wine= the blood of Christ. This is a symbol of the Eucharist.
• Caravaggio created paradoxes. He created an effort. The grapes could refer to Pliny and his writings about the fruit that looked so real that he wanted to eat it.
• This reflects the paintings of Durer. Caravaggio liked him very much. He would have been away of the print.
• Caravaggio makes is Bacchus take the same pose as Christ in the Durer print. This creates a paradox.

Caravaggio, Palafrenieri Madonna, Originally commissioned by the Palafrenieri for the altar at St. Peter’s, 1606.



• Palafrenieri protected the pope. They commissioned Caravaggio to decorate the altar of St. Peter’s. This would have been huge for a big altar.
• There are 3 monumental figures
o St. Anne
• Old
• Dark
• She is the grandmother Christ and the mother of Mary. She is just looking and waiting. In Dante she is refered to as being sickly looking and waiting for something to happen.
o Mary
• Adult
• Less dark/light
• She is teaching him how to walk and how to kill a snake.
• She is pushing the boy to us, also pulling him back. She pulls him back because she is still a mother and worries about her son. She pushes him toward the viewer as if she is offering him up the viewer. She knows he will have to go onto the cross and she is not happy. She knows this is inevitable. She is offering him to the viewer as if he is the host. It is as if he is being pushed OUTSIDE the painting.
o Christ as a young boy
• Youth
• Bathed in Light
• He is learning how to kill a snake. The baby is actually helping the mother to kill the snake.
• Mary’s hands hold the baby Jesus where his wounds would have been. He is also about to cross his legs just as if he is on the cross.
• His hand is like the hand of Adam.
• He knows that he will have to die on the cross for our sins because he has already seen evil. It is Christ’s first time seeing evil.
• His weight is emphasized.
o (Snake)
• This represents evil and the story of Eden.
• Another famous painting that depicts Anne, Mary and Christ is by Leonardo. The Adoration of the Magi.
o He is playing with a lamb. It is described by a monk that Mary is restraining the baby, but at the same time pushing him from/toward the lamb.
• His death is unavoidable. The baby had just been made aware that the snake is evil and he must kill it. He is foreshadowing the resurrection.
• The Sexuality of Christ in Art by Stienberg
o His nakedness shows that he is human. He was created with the flesh of Mary. This shows that he is vulnerable and “complete in all parts.” God revieled himself to us in the form of Christ.
o In another depiction of the Adoration of the Magi there are 3 kings. The first king opens the legs of Christ and checks to see is he is “complete in all parts.”