Marcantonio Borghese, 5th Prince of Sulmona

Marcantonio III Borghese, 5th Prince of Sulmona (16 September 1730–26 March 1800) was the head of the Borghese family of Rome. Pro-Bonaparte in sympathies, he was the father of Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese, 6th Prince of Sulmona and Francesco, 7th Prince of Sulmona (1832–1839).

Prince Marcantonio began recasting his family's Rome villa into a structured museum. From about 1775, under the guidance of architect Antonio Asprucci, old tapestry and leather hangings were removed, new ceiling decorations commissioned and the Casina renovated. The Borghese collection sculptures were reorganized around the Villa in a thematic new ordering that celebrated the Borghese position in Rome. For example, in 1785, he had Bernini's Apollo and Daphne moved to the centre of its room.[1]

Marcantonio transformed the villa's gardens from a formal garden architecture into an English landscape garden.

References

  1. ↑ The rehabilitation of the much-visited villa as a genuinely public museum in the late eighteenth century was the subject of an exhibition at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, in 2000, spurred by the Getty's acquisition of fifty-four drawings related to the project. Making a Prince's Museum: Drawings for the Late Eighteenth-Century Redecoration of the Villa Borghese. Getty Research Institute (17 June-17 September 2000). Catalogue by Carole Paul, with an essay by Alberta Campitelli.
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