Maria Brignole - Sale, known in Genoa as the Duchess of Galliera, was one of the most generous characters in the city. Last descendant of the noble family of Brignole - Sale, she spent most of her life in Paris, where her husband, Raffaele De Ferrari, one of the most skilled, fortunate and richest financial men of his time, carried out his business. After her death, being in possession of an immense patrimony and having no de facto heirs, since the only son who survived her, the second son Filippo, gave up the family inheritance, the Duchess dedicated herself to great charitable works by founding kindergartens, hospitals (the Galliera hospital is still the second in Genoa today) and orphanages both in France and in Genoa. In 1874 he made a gift to the Municipality of Genoa of Palazzo Rosso, the ancestral home of the Brignole - Sale, with the art collections it contained, a perennial testimony of the magnificence of the family; this act will be followed by the testamentary legacy (1889) of Palazzo Bianco and another large amount of paintings and sculptures, which formed the fundamental nucleus of the Strada Nuova Museums. Léon Cogniet, one of the most sought-after portrait painters of the high society of the time, especially for his ability to evoke the intimate personality of the model, portrayed her in his prestigious Parisian home, the Hôtel Matignon, now the seat of the Presidency of the Council of the Republic French, while holding on her lap, resting on the Brignole Bible - an illuminated manuscript of the thirteenth century - her second son, Philip. Almost indifferent to him, Maria turns a melancholy gaze towards the marble bust that can be seen reflected in the mirror at the back of the wall; it depicts Andrea, the eldest son, who died at the age of fourteen, to whom the rose placed on the prie-dieu also alludes, as a sign of a tender flower, destined to perish.
Read more
Details
Title:Maria Brignole-Sale De Ferrari, Duchess of Galliera with her son Filippo
