Palazzo Borghese: The Cardinal Who Held the Pardon
Why is it significant?
Stand in the little square and take in the long front of the palace with its rows of tall windows. Seen from above, this building has the shape of a harpsichord, which is why Romans nicknamed it il cembalo, and in Caravaggio's last years it was the home of one of the most insatiable art collectors…
Key Facts
| Place | Palazzo Borghese: The Cardinal Who Held the Pardon |
|---|---|
| Address | Largo della Fontanella di Borghese, 00186 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.90440, 12.47590 |
| Part of Walk | Caravaggio's Rome: Masterpieces, Brawls and a Killing |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand in the little square and take in the long front of the palace with its rows of tall windows. Seen from above, this building has the shape of a harpsichord, which is why Romans nicknamed it il cembalo, and in Caravaggio's last years it was the home of one of the most insatiable art collectors Europe has ever known.
In 1605 Camillo Borghese became Pope Paul the Fifth and, as popes did, made his nephew Scipione a cardinal and showered him with money and power. Scipione wanted beautiful things, and he wanted them badly. In 1607 the painter Cavalier d'Arpino, in whose workshop the young Caravaggio had once painted fruit and flowers, ran into legal trouble. His collection was confiscated and ended up with Scipione, including two early Caravaggios, the Boy with a Basket of Fruit and the Sick Bacchus.
By then Caravaggio was gone. After the killing of 1606 he was under a capital sentence, the bando capitale, which meant that anyone could kill him without being punished. His only hope was a papal pardon, and the road to the pope ran through this palace, through the nephew who loved his paintings.
So he painted his way toward forgiveness. In David with the Head of Goliath, now in the Galleria Borghese, the severed head dangling from David's hand has Caravaggio's own face, exhausted, mouth hanging open. It is often read as a plea: here is my head, do with it what you will. In 1610, hearing that a pardon was close, he sailed north from Naples with paintings meant for Scipione... and died at Porto Ercole, on the Tuscan coast, probably of a fever, before he ever saw Rome again. He was thirty-eight.
Scipione got his pictures anyway. The Borghese collection later moved to the family villa in the great park, the Galleria Borghese, where six Caravaggios still hang together. From here, head south into the tangle of lanes, toward the quiet Vicolo del Divino Amore, where Caravaggio once rented a house... and fought with his landlady.