Comment on 12.10.1799
Galleria Corsini is in Palazzo Corsini on the Tiber, where Queen Christina of Sweden lived in the 17th century. The palace later came into the possession of the Corsinis, where it remained until it was acquired by the Italian state in 1883. The collection is now called Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica di Palazzo Corsini. The core of the gallery remains the Corsini collection of old paintings, but this has subsequently been added to. Galleria Colonna is in Palazzo Colonna, Piazza SS. Apostoli. The collections of especially paintings are still in the possession of the Colonna family.
In Thorvaldsen’s time, the Borghese family’s collection of paintings was in Palazzo Borghese on the Tiber, and not until 1891 was the collection transferred to the family’s summer palace in the Villa Borghese / the Villa Borghese gardens, where the collection of sculptures has always been.
Prince Camillo Borghese, who was married to Napoleons sister Paolina, sold a number of the most famous antiques to the Louvre in 1807, but the collection was later reconstructed, and new acquisitions were added. In 1902 everything was acquired by the Italian state.
Regarding art collections in Rome ca. 1800, see also Louis Bobé: Frederikke Brun, født Münter, og hendes Kreds, hjemme og ude, Copenhagen 1910, p. 101-107.
Last updated 13.01.2015