The scholar Marco Bei isn’t talking about paintings, but about the frames that contain them. A deliberately lateral approach, only apparently unconventional, that allows us to read the history of Galleria Borghese from a different and unexpectedly revealing perspective.
Frames, often perceived as secondary elements, are in fact fundamental devices: they guide the viewer’s gaze, shape the relationship with light, and reflect both the taste of an era and the cultural intentions of those who have built and transformed the collection over time. By following the frames, we move through the original contexts of seventeenth-century picture galleries and the Borghese family’s urban palaces, as in the case of “Caccia di Diana” by Domenichino. In the XIX century, the painting is documented with a hinged hanging system that allowed works to be oriented toward natural light, facilitating the activity of copyists. Display practices thus become an integral part of the history of the artworks, revealing modes of viewing and study that are largely forgotten today. In the XIX century, Galleria engaged with a modern idea of the museum: many frames were standardized according to Neoclassical models inspired by the designs of Karl Friedrich Schinkel for the Altes Museum, in the name of visual coherence and efficiency. The twentieth century, by contrast, marked a critical turning point. The frame became a subject of museological debate and a didactic tool, through targeted interventions, replacements, and historical-style restorations promoted by directors and scholars attentive to the relationship between artwork, space, and public.
The result was never complete homogenization. Today, Galleria Borghese appears as a complex palimpsest, where original frames, adaptations, reconstructions, and remnants of XIX century displays coexist. A layered stratification that presents the museum’s long history as a history of taste, exhibition practices, and the European gaze. The talk is part of the final conference for the Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN 2022) ‘Galleria Borghese and its Audiences, 1888-1938, curated by Francesca Cappelletti and Lucia Simonato, which took place at Galleria Borghese on September 29, 2025. The day of study focused on the museum’s relationship with its numerous visitors.
