Borgia Apartment
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Borgia Apartment is a suite of rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.
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History
The Borgia Apartment was adapted for personal use by Pope Alexander VI (Rodrígo de Borgia).
In the late 15th century, he commissioned the Italian painter Bernardino di Betto (Pinturicchio) and his studio to decorate them with frescos.
The paintings and frescoes, which were executed between 1492 and 1494, drew on a complex iconographic program that used themes from medieval encyclopedias, adding an eschatological layer of meaning and celebrating the supposedly divine origins of the Borgias.
Frescoes
The works in the apartment are now considered part of the Vatican Library.
The upper part of the walls and vaults are not only covered with paintings but are further enriched with delicate stucco work in relief. The main subjects of the five rooms completed by Pinturicchio are:
- The Annunciation, the Nativity, the Magi, and the Resurrection.
- Scenes from the lives of St. Catherine, St. Antony and other saints.
- Allegorical figures of music, arithmetic and the like.
- Four figures in half length, with rich arabesques.
- Figures of the planets, the occupations of the various months, and other subjects.
A sixth room was repainted by Perin del Vaga.
Rooms
There are a number of individual rooms in the apartment including:
- The Room of the Sibyls
- The Room of the Creed
- The Room of the Liberal Arts
- The Room of the Saints
- The Room of the Faith.
However, as the apartment was closely associated with the disgraced Borgia family, it was abandoned in 1503 after the death of Pope Alexander VI.
Modern use
In 1889 Pope Leo XIII had the rooms restored and opened for public viewing.
Most of the rooms are now used for the Vatican Collection of Modern Religious Art, inaugurated by Pope Paul VI in 1973.
The collection includes about 600 accumulated works of painting, sculpture and graphic art; donations of contemporary Italian and foreign artists and includes works by Gaugin, Chagall, Klee and Kadinsky.
