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.

Master of Baroque 'wonder' par excellence, Gregorio de Ferrari was a very successful draftsman, painter and fresco artist. Like his father-in-law Domenico Piola , Gregorio managed to monopolize the most important decorative yards in the city, also painting room paintings and providing designs for furniture, furnishings, monuments and carvings to other artists, sculptors and carvers. On display it will be possible to admire refined paintings and sketches by the master in which darting and foreshortened figures, with studied and theatrical poses and lightened and luminous colors, now anticipate the eighteenth-century 'rocaille' taste. Alongside the canvases, some drawings from the Drawings and Prints Department of Palazzo Rosso will be exhibited for the occasion: authentic masterpieces on paper, diversified by techniques and functions, which due to their fragility can only be exhibited for short periods to the public.