Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1645, oil on canvas, Genova, Fondazione Spinola, Chiesa di San Luca,
© Scala / Art Resource, NY
A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750 ‘A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750’ is the first comprehensive exhibition of the period in nearly 30 years and the first of this scale in the United States. September 26, 2021 through January 9, 2022]]>
Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington
One of the most important ports in the Mediterranean and a formidable maritime power, Genoa became a functioning republic in the early 16th century and steadily transformed itself into the banking center of Europe. Its leading families accumulated extraordinary wealth and in their competition for social prestige and political position invested it in visual culture: civil construction, ecclesiastical projects, and, above all, their own residences, which were then filled with the fresco decoration and collections for which the city is still famed. Aided by its unique strategic position in relation to numerous Italian centers and the dominions of the king of Spain (Milan, Naples, Sicily, and Flanders), Genoa developed far-reaching commercial and financial networks, and a tradition of exchange of all kinds. Its culture took on an incomparably varied and complex expression.
Organized by themes within the broad stylistic development of the period, “A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750” will feature some 60 paintings: masterpieces by non-Genoese artists drawn to the city’s vital environment, including Peter Paul Rubens, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Orazio Gentileschi, Anthony van Dyck; outstanding works by the school’s few artists who are well known because of their activity outside the city—Bernardo Strozzi, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, and Alessandro Magnasco; and superb examples by native Genoese painters who worked primarily in the city and remain largely unknown—Gioacchino Assereto, Valerio Castello, Domenico Piola, Gregorio De Ferrari, and Bartolomeo Guidobono.
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