The Borghese Museum has at last invited us to take glimpses of its attic the work stored in its stacks not usually exhibited in its sumptuous apartments downstairs. These are works by "petits matres" or minor and not well-known painters from the 17th and 18th century. Among 606 of them a few stars are listed: Jacopo Bassano, Agostino Carracci, Sebastiano del Piombo, Baldassare Peruzzi and Salvator Rosa. There are also four women: Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, Marietta Tintoretto and an oil attributed to Sofonisba Anguissola. Alas, a great deal here is "attrib."; "seguace di"; "maniera di"; "scuola di". Of course in all the arts there are minor but valid practitioners. Here their merits and foibles, their particular contributions to style and insight are displayed not only to the judgement of specialists and scholars, but to the alert and intelligent probing viewer as well. Edith Schloss