Portrait of the Princes Camillo and Francesco Borghese
1778
Giuseppe Cades captured these two young Borghese princes in 1778, dressed in their finest puffy, ruffled outfits. The boy on the left proudly displays a large architectural drawing of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, while his brother sits front and center, gazing directly at us with wide, curious eyes. Behind them looms a sketch of a bust labeled 'PAOLO V,' a nod to their famous ancestor, Pope Paul V, who was a major patron of the arts and helped shape the Vatican we know today. It's a charming glimpse into the privileged, art-filled upbringing of Roman nobility during the Neoclassical era.