Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Baroque art - the search for wonder, fiction and amazement, for the movement of affections, for pathetic emphasis and ecstasy - brought great protagonists to the fore in Genoa : in painting, sculpture, in the enthralling great dimension of the fresco and in the small, precious dimension of the design, of the fabric, of the majolica. These protagonists, famous and successful artists in their time, were actors in great transformations of taste in the city and were sometimes able to impose themselves on the national and international scene by attracting coveted orders from prestigious clients.

A "superb" Baroque that of Genoa, as the Scuderie del Quirinale entitles the contemporary Roman exhibition SuperBarocco, dedicated to Genoese art between 1650 and 1750.

The Protagonists review. Masterpieces in Genoa 1600 - 1750 is ideally connected to the Roman exhibition and to the Genoese exhibition La Forma della Meraviglia. Masterpieces in Genoa 1600 – 1750 in Palazzo Ducale (March 27 – July 10) to celebrate together, at the same time, this extraordinary artistic season: that of a splendid and astonishing Baroque, which looking at external, "international" models (not only and certainly Rome, but also the space painting of the Emilian sixteenth century, the rhetoric of light of the Nordic naturalists, Bernini's animated sculpture mediated by the forms of the French Pierre Puget, and other references still), translates them however into a singular and refined language, with figures peculiar and recognizable, which become the 'Genoese' acronym of the activity of their own workshops, interconnected with each other in common references for a refined, brilliant baroque, like an elitist and precious gem.

The figure of Gio Benedetto Castiglione, the Grechetto, has particular relevance in the heritage of the National Gallery of Palazzo Spinola both for the number of works, five canvases, and for the link to Ansaldo Pallavicino, the owner of the building since 1650, who had a particular for the painter. In the nucleus of works commissioned by Ansaldo, in addition to the works still belonging to the Pelliceria collections, there are two other paintings, now in another location, which return to the Palazzo for this exhibition. For the first time, the rooms of the building in which Ansaldo Pallavicino lived find the paintings of his favorite painter, which document the most recurring subjects in Grechetto's production; canvases of very different sizes, which allow us to appreciate the different ways of doing Grechetto, from the large vibrant fields of color of the monumental Journey of Abraham to the darting brushstrokes of the smaller landscape canvases.