Museo Pietro Canonica

The Museo Pietro Canonica lets you follow the work behind a public monument. Models, casts, and sculptures bring different stages of making into the same collection. A figure that eventually occupied a city square could first exist as a small study, then as a larger working model.

The building has its own change of scale and purpose. Seventeenth-century documents describe it as a place where birds were raised for Borghese hunting parties. Its later battlemented appearance gave it the name Fortezzuola, the “small fortress.” In 1926 the sculptor Pietro Canonica received use of the building and adapted it as his home and workplace.

After his death in 1959, his works formed the basis of the museum. Furnishings from the apartment were later donated as well. The result joins a professional collection to the setting of an artist’s domestic life.

This makes a useful companion to the outdoor busts. It explains processes used in sculpture without implying that Canonica made the portraits along the Pincio paths. Check the museum’s visitor information before planning time indoors.