The Age of Rubens
Genovese residences, buyers and collectors
March 20 – September 12 2004
Separate section:
The residence and picture gallery of Ansaldo Pallavicino

A section of the exhibit of The Age of Rubens, Genovese residences, buyers and collectors will be presented in the halls of the National Gallery of Palazzo Spinola, mansion built by Francesco Grimaldi and chosen by Pieter Paul Rubens to be included in his volume The Mansions of Genoa, dedicated to the “extremely beautiful and comfortable residences” he admired in the city: and it is with the etching from the volume depicting the façade of the mansion that the tour of the section begins. 

It is in this mansion, of which he became owner in 1650, that Ansaldo Pallavicino collected an important collection of artwork, which includes, in addition to the works he himself commissioned, paintings and sculptures he inherited from his father Agostino, Doge of the Republic of Genoa in 1637. This collection which remained in his residence is today one of the principal nucleuses of the patrimony of the National Gallery of Palazzo Spinola. The prestige of Ansaldo is clear in the letter which Salvatore Castiglione wrote, after the death of the noble Genovese, to the Duke of Mantova: I believe fatal the coming of these jewels [ the paintings of Gio. Vincenzo Imperiale] to Mantova because the death of Ansaldo Pallovicino first, and that of the Prince of Molfetta Giovanni Filippo Spinola afterwards have entirely deprived this city of he who delighted in and could spend on paintings of this quality.

On the occasion of the exhibit the paintings and documents connected to these two important personages which have remained until the present time in what was the residence of Ansaldo, and which is now a museum, will be presented organically in the surroundings of the second story - which has maintained its seventeenth century fresco decorum entirely.
The nucleus of works purchased by each of the two Pallavicino’s will be proposed again, underlining the relationships had with their favourite painters: Agostino’s with Domenico Fiasella, from whom he commissioned three portraits which depict him and, through which, his son was able to enrich his precious collection with various bronzes of Ferdinando Tacca; of Ansaldo with Gio. Benedetto Casliglione so-called the “Grechetto”, author of the substantial nucleus of works to be presented and carried out for the noble Genovese, several already noted by the critics, such as the Circe and the Viaggio of Abramo, others instead presented on this occasion.

The series of portraits will be assembled which Agostino loved to commission in memory of each step of his political career: the Portrait of Agostino and Ansaldo Pallavicino realized by Domenico Fiasella on occasion of the ambassadorship at Louis XIII’s court, the portrait in which he was depicted by Anton van Dyck together with little Ansaldo, relative which only the portion with the child remains, and the Portrait of Agostino Pallavicino as Doge by Anton van Dyck, which will be re-evoked through a copy done by Anton Maria Piola. The virtuosic Allegoria per l’incoronazione di Agostino Pallavicino of Giovanni Tommaso Borgonio and the volume Applausi della Liguria, containing an etching of Gilles Rousselet’s which depicts The doge Agostino Pallavinco from Genoa to Corsica also celebrate the rise of Agostino to the highest position in the Genovese Republic.

A true novelty of the exhibit however will be the presentation of the works together with inedited documents belonging to the archives of the Pallavicino family, conserved at the National Gallery of Palazzo Spinola, testimonies which allow for the minute reconstruction of the relationships which were formed between the patrons and the artists, as well as the worth of their collections, but also their personalities and their most intimate affections thanks to the precise payments recorded, to the wills, to the inventories.
This section of the exhibit, outfitted in the hall of the second story of the mansion, frescoed by Lazzaro Tavarone, will as of such offer the exceptional opportunity to visit the collection of Agostino and Ansaldo in what was their home, which has now become a museum, appreciating the truly unicum conservation in the integrity of the relationship between residence-artwork-documents.

Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola
Piazza Pellicceria, 1 - 16123 Genoa
Telephone 010/2705300 - Fax 010/2705322
E-mail: galspinola@libero.it - web page: www.palazzospinola.it
Ticket office: 010/2530454

Opening hours
Tuesday – Saturday: from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Sunday and holidays: from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Closed: Monday

Tickets
The ticket to the exhibit includes the section at the National Gallery of Palazzo Spinola. For the complete visit to the museum, which includes in the tour the section relative the exhibit:
Full price: Euro 4,00
Reduced (for ages 18 to 25): Euro 2,00
Free of charge for under 18 and 65 and older
Free entry to holders of the “Museum Card” for the Museums of Genoa
Coat check service available at the Museum
Bookshop Novamusa

How to get here
From Palazzo Ducale: on foot 10 minutes
(Ducale – via S. Lorenzo – via canneto il Curto – P.zza Banchi – Via S. Luca)
Toll parking: zone Aquarium – Antique Port