From Baroque to myth: Borghese Gallery presents program 2026

The Borghese Gallery in Rome is preparing for a new year of activity with an exhibition program that confirms its commitment to keeping its collection accessible to a wide and diverse audience. Following the success of 2025, which saw the sale of 630,759 tickets, surpassing the average figure of around 600,000 visitors in previous years, the museum is offering a series of initiatives that combine heritage protection and enhancement, scientific research and exhibition innovation, while opening dialogues with international institutions.

The exhibition year opens on January 20 with the exhibition Zanabazar at the Borghese Gallery. From Mongolia to the Global Baroque, held in collaboration with MAO - Museum of Oriental Art in Turin, scheduled until Feb. 22. The exhibition presents for the first time in Europe two works by Zanabazar (1635-1723), a central figure in Mongolian culture and Tibetan Buddhism. In the Mariano Rossi Salon, the Green Tara and a bronze self-portrait of the artist enthroned, from the Chinggis Khaan National Museum in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, dialogue with the collection of Scipione Borghese, who had intensely cultivated a relationship with the Far East. The juxtaposition with works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini highlights connections between geographically and culturally distant worlds that share a creative force and formal innovation. The project is in the vein of the previous exhibitionGlobal Baroque. The World in Rome in Bernini’s Time (Scuderie del Quirinale, 2025), delving into the theme of cross-cultural connections and the circulation of forms in the seventeenth century.

2026 continues with dossier exhibitions, dedicated to in-depth studies of selected works in the museum. From March 10 to May 3, there will be Return to the Borghese Gallery. Giovan Francesco Penni and the Workshop of Raphael, while from March 17 to May 10 Marcello Provenzale da Cento. A Genius of Baroque Mosaic in the Rome of the Borghese, held in collaboration with the Pinacoteca di Cento. Both exhibitions, set up in a single room, offer the public new insights into the history of the collection and the ongoing journey of recomposing its original appearance. The first exhibition celebrates the return of an allegory attributed to Raphael, recently acquired by the Galleria Borghese, while the second highlights the figure of Marcello Provenzale, an innovator of mosaic technique in the Rome of Paul V.

The heart of the exhibition program will be the major exhibition Metamorphoses. Ovid and the Arts, curated by Francesca Cappelletti and Frits Scholten, in collaboration with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, scheduled from June 23 to Sept. 20. Born out of a shared scholarly dialogue, the project proposes an autonomous and original installation, conceived in close relationship with the collection and history of the Galleria Borghese. Starting with Ovid’s Metamorphoses, one of the founding texts of the Western imagination, the exhibition explores the theme of metamorphosis as a universal principle and key to understanding the cosmos, matter and the human condition. The exhibition includes works by artists from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, such as Correggio, Michelangelo, Titian, Rubens and Poussin, to performers from later centuries such as Gerôme, Rodin and Brancusi. Masterpieces with mythological subjects on display include Gian Lorenzo Bernini’sApollo and Daphne and Pluto and Proserpine, which confirm the centrality of myth in the construction of the European imagination.

The 2026 program integrates thematic itineraries, multilingual captions, up-to-date audioguides and immersive experiences, tools designed to delve into the history of the Gallery, the architecture of the building and the displays, accompanying the public in the discovery of the collections and the transformations they have undergone over time. The Borghese Gallery thus confirms its vocation as a museum in dialogue with the present, strengthening cultural accessibility and promoting renewed ways of relating between the public and works, enhancing the tangible and intangible heritage preserved. The support of Intesa Sanpaolo - Gallerie d’Italia and Webuild Spa contributes to the realization of exhibition initiatives and the improvement of the public experience.

From Baroque to myth: Borghese Gallery presents program 2026

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