XVII-XVIII century paintingwpe44.jpg (839 byte)

This room is situated on the First Floor

This small room brings together some paintings which represent the everyday life of common people in the I 7th century. The collectors named these works "childish actions" by the name of the Dutch painter Pieter Van Laer, nicknamed "The child" who launched the fashion of this particular style, so much imitated by Italian and foreign artists.
In the Borghese GaIlery there are many works by the "childish painters", such as the paintings of the Italian Michelangelo Cerquozzi, probably painted in 1640 and representing the everyday life of common women, beggars, urchins, washerwomen, etc.

Another remarkable painting is The Gallery of an Antique Dealer (1640), by Frans Franken. This little painting shows in detail the shop of an antiquarian in the l7th century, filled with paintings, little statues and crowded with collectors. In this room one can see also some works from the beginning of the I 8th century, which joined the collection after the death of Cardinal Scipione. The painter Canaletto is present in this room with the Colosseum, a smalì painting like a miniature (1745).
Pompeo Batoni and Gaspare Landi are both representatives of Italian art in the enlightened I8th century.
Pompeo Batoni painted the Madonna with Child (1742) which recalls the Madonna in the I 7th century.
Gaspare Landi was a good portrait-painter who revealed his ability in the Self-portrait (1806) and in the Canova Portrait (1806) which testifyes his friendship with the sculptor.