Borgia Apartment

The painted rooms and the works displayed in them belong to different periods of collecting. Pope Alexander VI, a member of the Borgia family, commissioned the renovation and decoration of this apartment during his papacy, from 1492 to 1503. Pinturicchio and his collaborators carried out its principal painted programme. The rooms have subjects such as the Liberal Arts, Saints, Mysteries and Sibyls. Some lie within the Borgia Tower, while others occupy older wings of the palace. Their names preserve the themes chosen for a papal residence. After Alexander’s death, his successor Julius II moved to the corresponding rooms on the floor above. Those became the Raphael Rooms. The Borgia Apartment acquired other uses over the centuries before opening to the public in the late nineteenth century. Part of the Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art now occupies these historical spaces. When a work catches your attention, give the surrounding decoration a separate look. The object and its setting arrived in the museum’s story at different times.