Rome celebrates the Baroque age of Genoa

At the Scuderie del Quirinale, from 25 March to 3 July, the great exhibition celebrating Genoese art. In parallel, an exhibition also at the Doge’s Palace

Genoa – IS a Genoa at the height of its splendor the one told in the exhibition “Superbarocco. Genoese splendor from Rubens to Magnasco ”, scheduled at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome, from 25 March to 3 July. An event that also wants to celebrate the rebirth of a city with the reconstruction of the Morandi Bridge. It is no coincidence that the main sponsor of the exhibition is Webuild, who built the bridge designed by Renzo Piano. The “Superbarocco” exhibition was expected to be hosted at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and at the Scuderie del Quirinale but the pandemic has put an end to the international “trip”. In Genoa it will be possible to visit the related exhibition “Superbarocco. The shape of wonder. Masterpieces in Genoa between 1600 and 1750 ”, scheduled at Palazzo Ducale from 27 March to 10 July.

The exhibition celebrates an extraordinary season when they were created by famous artists such as Rubens, Van Dyck, Puget and brilliant local talents such as Bernardo Strozzi, Valerio Castello, Gregorio De Ferrari, works of surprising quality. Among the pieces on display are altarpieces but above all large “room pictures” of sacred and profane subjects, in some cases unpublished and, in several cases never presented in Genoa. Both exhibitions (Skira catalog) are curated by Johnathan Bober, senior curator of the National Gallery for the antique drawings department, Piero Boccardo, former superintendent of the Genoese civic collections and Franco Boggero, former head of the historical-artistic sector of the Ligurian Superintendency.

At the Scuderie we will see the great Genoese artistic production with 124 works including paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, silver, furnishing objects from 56 lenders, including Italian and foreign museums and private collections, all dating back to the period that deserved the definition of “Siglo de los Genoveses”.

In Rome you will see the exhibition that was designed for Washington, to which are added an exceptional golden pourer with the Pallavicino coat of arms, a Grechetto never included in an exhibition, also extraordinary for its size, and a wall table with a top in amethyst from the Museum of Palazzo Rosso e two Magnasco en pendant never exhibited before. The famous “Cuoca” by Strozzi will be joined by marble groups by Pierre Puget and Filippo Parodi; monumental altarpieces by Grechetto and Domenico Piola; a large sculptural group – a processional chest – depicting the Baptism of Christ by Anton Maria Maragliano which comes from Pieve di Teco and which, like many other works, has been specially restored. Part of the works from the Municipality of Genoa have been restored by the Compagnia di San Paolo. There will also be the “Entertainment in the Albaro garden” in Magnasco.

“The exhibition was born with enthusiasm, as a great tribute to a city that has suffered and gives a strong signal to restart” declared Mario De Simoni, president of the Scuderie del Quirinale, satisfied with having kept the appointment. De Simoni underlines: «The Genoese and Roman initiatives are spoken at a distance within a single celebratory project of a moment in the history of Italy. While Washington due to Covid had to give up, as we had already done for the Raphael exhibition, we have kept our commitment. We would have inaugurated in September, a month after the San Giorgio bridge, we have only postponed it ».

Mayor Marco Bucci underlines: «We all worked together to achieve this result, which is important in terms of culture and promotion of the city. If at the Scuderie del Quirinale you will see the masterpieces of the great masters of the Genoese Baroque, in Genoa you will find the same atmosphere in a sister exhibition. Who said that our city cannot go back to those levels, when it was the banking center of Europe».