ABSTRACT
Within a few years of their fall from power, the reputation of the Borgias affected the way the art they commissioned and lived with was received. The Appartamento Borgia in the Vatican Palace, which Rodrigo Borgia had commissioned Pinturicchio to decorate soon after he became Pope Alexander VI, was closed up or otherwise hidden away for hundreds of years. Restored to view in 1897, the frescoes offer a window on the family at the time. In particular the frescoes in one room, the Sala dei Santi, are renowned for the alleged portraits of Alexander’s sons, daughter, even a mistress depicted as the Virgin Mary. A closer look shows such suggestions to be often questionable and reveal both early modern and modern prejudice. A depiction of a near-fully clothed Susanna being spied on by the elders, painted in an era when the subject was commonly used as an excuse for the portrayal of female nudity, challenges perceptions of the pope’s predilections. These rooms were where Pope Alexander VI, and sometimes members of his family, lived, worked, and entertained visitors. The fresco decorations were intended to convey a message at the time, and convey a message to us today.
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