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Postcards from Rome.

Jan 15, 2013

BORGIAS' PAPAL APARTMENTS.


Jeremy Irons
You may have liked the series by Neil Jordan (2011) for the BBC which stars a fabulous Jeremy Irons as the pope Alexander VI.
At the Vatican you can actually visit the Rooms where the Borgias lived, rooms which oversaw intrigues, alliances, even murder.
The papal apartments were decorated by Pinturicchio and his school at the end of 15th century:  the frescoes on the vaults (some have been recently restored)  show Christian, Jewish and pagan elements. 
After the death of pope Alexander VI and the disgrace of the Borgias, those rooms were abandoned.
Only in 1889 the apartments were first restored and opened to the public.
In 1973 the Modern Art collection of the Vatican Museums was installed here.
In the Hall of the Sibyls Cesare Borgia was imprisoned in 1503 by Julius II, in the same room where he had his cousin Alfonso of Aragon (second husband of Lucrezia Borgia) murdered! 
In the fresco showing the Disputation of St. Catherine (in the Hall of the Saints) the figure of the Saint could be the portrait of Lucrezia, the pope's daughter (or his mistress Giulia Farnese).





















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