Restorers Uncover 16th-Century Nude Frescoes Hidden by Nuns in Rome's Villa Silvestri Rivaldi
Restorers working in the Villa Silvestri Rivaldi, a Renaissance residence a short walk from the Colosseum in Rome, are bringing back to light a series of 16th-century frescoes full of nude gods, goddesses and mythological scenes that were painted over some 300 years ago by the nuns who then owned the building, The Art Newspaper reported on 28 September 2026. The paintings are thought to be by leading artists of the time, probably including Perino del Vaga, one of Raphael's closest assistants.
What: 16th-century mythological frescoes uncovered during restoration
Where: Villa Silvestri Rivaldi, near the Colosseum and the Imperial Forums, Rome
When: Full-scale restoration under way in 2026; guided visits to the work in progress
Who: Istituto Centrale per il Restauro; Lazio Region and Italian Ministry of Culture
Section: Discoveries & Restorations
What happened
According to The Art Newspaper, the villa was built in the mid-16th century for Eurialo Silvestri, and its rooms were decorated with frescoes of classical subjects: a Hall of the Divinities, a Hall of the Emperors and a Hall of Cupid and Psyche, with gods, battle scenes, zodiac signs and portraits of emperors. From 1660 the building belonged to a religious institution for poor unmarried women run by nuns, who objected to the naked pagan figures and had them covered. Conservators from the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro are now removing those later layers with water-based methods and lasers. The conservator Paola Mezzadri told the newspaper that the villa could one day become "one of the most important places to visit in Rome".
The Lazio Region agreed to buy the villa for €25 million, and Artnet reported in December 2025 that a restoration budget of €35 million had been set aside. Since then, Rome's tourism office has been offering booked visits to watch the "open restoration" in progress. No date has yet been given for the completion of the work.
Why it matters
The villa sits on a remarkable site, above Roman imperial foundations and overlooking the Colosseum and the Imperial Forums, and its decoration has been out of sight for most of its history. The discovery also tells a familiar story about taste and censorship. Nudity that was normal in a humanist patron's house in the 1540s became unacceptable to its later owners, and the simplest solution was a coat of paint. The same shift is visible in Michelangelo's Last Judgment, where draperies were added to many of the figures after the Council of Trent. In Rivaldi, the cover-up turned out to be a form of protection: hidden under later layers, the frescoes survived three centuries of changing uses.
The painting behind the story
One of the rooms being uncovered in Rome is dedicated to Cupid and Psyche, a love story from Apuleius that Renaissance patrons loved to see on their walls. Almost four centuries later, John William Waterhouse returned to the same myth in Psyche Opening the Golden Box (1903), showing the moment Psyche disobeys once more and lifts the lid. Read the full story in our essay on Waterhouse's Psyche Opening the Golden Box, and for another rediscovery this month, see the lost Velázquez portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares.
Get Waterhouse’s Psyche Opening the Golden Box as a museum-quality print, canvas, or poster from the Sapiens Verbum print shop.
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💬 Over to you: When later owners cover a work of art they find offensive, should restorers always remove the covering, or is the censorship part of the building's history too? Tell us in the comments.
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