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

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

The review The Protagonists. Masterpieces in Genoa 1600 - 1750 is ideally connected to the Roman exhibition and 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 amazing baroque, which looking at external, "international" models (not only and certainly Rome, but also the space painting of the sixteenth century in Emilia, the rhetoric of light of the Nordic naturalists, the lively Berninian sculpture mediated by the forms of the Frenchman Pierre Puget, and other references), however, translates them into a singular and refined language, with figures peculiar and recognizable, which become the 'Genoese' acronym of the activity of their shops, interconnected with each other in common references for a refined, brilliant baroque, like an elite and precious gem.

Gioacchino Assereto is one of the most representative painters of the early seventeenth century in Genoa. The collections of the Strada Nuova Museums include fundamental works by the artist: from early paintings in which the mannerist suggestions from Genoese and Lombard masters and models are still strong, to canvases in which Assereto matures a more personal and original search for 'naturalism', combining Vandyckian and Caravaggesque suggestions. In this way, Assereto clearly transforms the way of telling stories in Genoa, no longer didactic and detailed narratives but overwhelming images with a strong theatrical and emotional impact.