The Galleria Borghese and its Public(s), 1888-1938

Research group of the namesake PRIN project 2022PEL788, funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU, Mission 4 Component 1 and co-ordinated by Professor Lucia Simonato (principal investigator), from October 2023 to February 2026.

The research project proposed a multi-perspective study of the public of the Galleria Borghese from the time of its acquisition by the Italian State to the threshold of the Second World War: a fifty-year period (1888-1938) that was crucial both in the institutional establishment of the museum and the new enhancement of its collections, and in the formation of a national idea of conservation science and cultural heritage.

The starting point of the study was the museum's copious documentary archival collection (in particular the so-called ‘Archivio storico’ ['Historical Archive'] and ‘Archivio Torrino’ [‘Torrino Archive’]), from which it was possible to assess the Galleria's fortunes from within, by means of its administrative proceedings in the context of national legislation, without losing sight either of the central problem of the perception of its artworks (in its exhibition space and in the assessment over time) or of the relationship between the Borghese and its many of ‘types of public'. Connoisseurs and scholars, photographers and artists -  all of these visitors have contributed with articles, diaries, books, drawings, copies and photos to the writing of a choral paratext giving us an extremely dynamic image of the museum, that of differing as much from the stereotype of the temple-mortuary created in the same years by the futurists as from the certainties of an increasingly self-aware historical-artistic discipline.

Each stage of the project was carried out in close collaboration with the Galleria Borghese   and with its director, Francesca Cappelletti, within a framework agreement between the Normale and the museum signed as far back as 2021. Chosen for the international importance of its collections, the Borghese was the ideal case study to measure the complexity of the objectual, political, institutional, emotional, visual and cultural dynamics that act in or around a museum; it was thus studied by the research group in its museographic and catalographic logics as a reacting device both in a material sphere (conservation and restoration) and in an ideological one (the social and educational vocation and the relationship with authority)

Three research units contributed to the project.

Research unit. Scuola Normale Superiore (CUP E53D23014060006). Scientific director: Lucia Simonato; associate researcher: Alessandro Del Puppo (University of Udine); research fellows: William Cortès Casarrubios and Pier Ludovico Puddu; PhD students: Marco Bei, Gaia Mazzacane, Irene Micheletti, Inga Nerin, Chiara Pazzaglia, Nadia Rizzo, Claudio Tongiorgi; technical personnel: Andrea Ficini, Giandonato Tartarelli

University of Palermo (CUP B53D23022990001). Scientific director: Alexander Auf der Heyde; research fellow: Claudio Gulli

University of Naples ‘Federico II’ (CUP E53D23014070001).  Scientific director: Sandro Morachioli;  research fellows: Vanda Lisanti; PhD student: Alberto Pirro

Thanks also go to the DocStar Laboratory (SNS) for its financial contribution towards the costs of digitising the Borghese Gallery’s archival collections, and to Dr Jaya Di Domenico for cataloguing them.

Main results of the research study and of its dissemination

Borghese Gallery Archive

Videos and clips (marzo 2026) (in the process of updating)

Publications (in  the process of updating)

1. Storici dell’arte alla Galleria Borghese, 1888-1938, edited by Alexander Auf der Heyde and Claudio Gulli, «Memofonte» (ISSN: 2038-0488), special number I, 2026; with contributions from the following members of the research team: Alexander Auf der Heyde, «Avrei anch’io qualche cosa da precisare!!». Hermann Voss e la «spätitalienische Malerei» (1908-1932); Claudio Gulli, Roberto Longhi e la Galleria Borghese nel cantiere delle Precisioni; Pier Ludovico Puddu, Il silenzioso lavoro storico-critico di Giovanni Piancastelli alla Borghese, tra connoisseurship e scavo documentario. Una prima indagine; Nadia Rizzo, Hoogewerff e altri olandesi in Borghese (1928); Lucia Simonato, Un punto di vista unico sulla Galleria Borghese: il giovane Wittkower a Roma (1923-1927)
2. William Cortès Casarrubios, Incontri in Galleria Borghese: il museo e gli artisti nel primo dopoguerra, «Memofonte», 24, 2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25433/2038-0488/8jd9-vd24 
3. Pier Ludovico Puddu, L’archivio storico della Galleria Borghese: fonti e documenti per la storia dell’arte, «Annali Scuola Normale Superiore. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia», Series V, 17, 2025, 2, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2422/3035-3769.202502_07
4. Vanda Lisanti, The “Mona Lisa” at the Galleria Borghese in 1913. Notes on the History of the museum and the role of event Exhibitions in re-defining its public, in «RIHA Journal», 2026, RIHA 0345, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/riha.2026.1.113627