The record-union., 1897-07-04

/ ages, and If you think that priests
never play, you will be undeceived.
Scattered over the lawns are the cas-
socked figures of the young religious"
playing at cricket and football among
| themselves. Soon troop of school
boys, led by a young ecclesiastic, will
come trooping by. squabbling among
themselves just like American boys.
Under the trees will be seen students
and monks with their books. Once a
visit to the grounds was made on foot
or in carriage. but now little horse
car will take one halfway from the
gate to the casino.
Here is preserved the great collection
which the Government has. just bought.
The building was erected by VaSanZio
for ScipiO Borghese, and was restored
by Marc Antonio Borghese at the end
of the last century. 1t resembles some
what the. neighboring Villa Medici,
which was the suggestive model for the
New York building at the Columbian
Exhibition, and, like the Villa Medici,
has many ancient reliefs set in the
/ stucco of its walls.
The Borghese collections We're first
( formed by Marc Antonio Borghese be-
I L
ghese, married Pauline Bonaparte, the
sister of the Emperor Napoleon, and in
| 1906 sold to his brother-in-la law the most
! valuable of his treasure, which now
adorn the Louvre Afterward he gath
/ cred the new collection, which the Ital-
ian Government prevented his descend
| ants from getting rid of after the same
fashion. None of the antique marbles
are of great Importance. Most of them
were dug up on the Borghese estates,
but in the work of the seventeenth CEN
tury, both in statuary and pictures, the
gallery is exceedingly rich. Indeed it
is generally believed to be the most val
| liable private gallery in the world, not
Withstanding the few examples of the
highly priced men of the early Renais-
sance which it contains.
| Perhaps the most famous of its pict-
ures is Titian's Sacred and Profane
Love-" which has sometimes been called
Mature and Civilization" This, Eaton
declares. cannot be matched by any
other Titan outside of Venice. Correg-
giO's ''Danae" also rests in this gal
/ lery after long wanderings. Everybody
knows part of this picture, at least,
for the cupids sharpening their arrows
/ have been the subject of endless repro
duction. Correggio painted this pict-
ure for the Duke of Mantua. From his
home it went to Spain, then back to
Milan, whence it was taken to Prague
by the Emperor Rudolph After that it
wandered between Stockholm, Paris
and London, until Prince Borghese pur-
chased it
The gallery claims Botticelli. in a
Madonna with angels and child holding
a pomegranate, but all critics do not
concede the claim but attribute it to
pupil of Botticelh.
Raphael is represented by the EN-
toInbment,' the last picture he painted
in Perugia, before he went to Rome
and it was in a chapel at Perugia be-
fore Paul V. bought it for the Borghese
collection The gallery also contains
three frescoes by his pupils from the
Villa of Raphael, which formerly stood
in another part of the park. Frans
F'rancia is represented by several can
vases, among them "St. Stephen -
which has been the subject of much
praise. OF the Ferrarese and Mnanese
schools there are many examples. Sad
/ owa, Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del
logue while the seventeenth century
work in the collection is extensive The
gallery is thronged with statues by
Bernini and pictures by Domenichino,
Carracci, Albani and their best contem-
poraries.
OF modern statuary the best known
piece in the gallery is Canova's Venus
Victrix," a portrait of Pauline Bona
parfe, of which it is said Prince Bor-
ghese was so jealous of his wife that he
locked it in a room of which he kept
the key. and would allow nobody. not
even the sculptor himself, to see it,
For many years the pictures We're
hung in the Borghese palace, just off
the Corso. in Rome but after the fail
ure in 1892 they were removed to the
casino at the villa. There they will
doubtless remain. While the property
was still in the hands of Prince Bor-
ghese but under the supervision Of the
Government the charm of the grounds
was somewhat impaired by concessions
TO the merry -go-round spirit which in
vades Roman as we'll as New York
pleasure grounds. It is much to be
hoped that with the city in full pos
session no further encroachments may
be made but that this Incompatible
park will preserve the atmosphere
which suggests wood nymphs one mo-
ment and p9n91 revpIS he next