In this 2022 that Genoa dedicates to Rubens, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the book Palazzi di Genova that the great artist had published in Antwerp in 1622, Fondazione Carige and Banca Carige, BPER Banca Group, participate with the exhibition “Rubens e Bacco. In vino veritas ”, curated by Anna Orlando with Agnese Marengo, to the network created around the great exhibition of Palazzo Ducale, Rubens in Genoa.

An original journey through the masterpieces and themes frequented by the Genoese baroque school, from which also originates a series of initiatives in which great art is combined with attention to the social and economic development of the territory involving a large panel of institutions. "Rubens e Bacchus. In vino veritas ”will in fact be accompanied by various collateral activities dedicated in parallel to schools and the world of economics and business. The artistic and cultural itinerary that Anna Orlando with Agnese Marengo built around the Education of Bacchus, a painting from the art collections of Banca Carige traditionally attributed to Rubens, thus becomes an opportunity for a 360-degree reflection on our society thanks to a theme, that of wine, the vine and the earth, which strongly pervades our culture.

The exhibition presents the various subjects that in the seventeenth century involved the figure of Bacchus, Dionysus for the Greeks, god of wine. Some twenty works including paintings, drawings and engravings come from private Italian collections to furnish the evocative rooms of the noble floor of Palazzo Doria Carcassi, headquarters of the Carige Foundation. The authors are all belonging to the Genoese school of the seventeenth century and also include some Flemings among the many who stayed in the city at that time such as Vincenzo Malò, a pupil of Rubens in Antwerp, and Giacomo Legi, a pupil of Frans Snyders who was among the closest collaborators of the Flemish genius.

The mythological tales that narrate the life of Bacchus from childhood to his falling in love with Ariadne are flanked by those that have as protagonists the figures close to the god, such as Silenus, the satyrs, the maenads and the bacchantes. Wine is associated with the theme of pleasure, if not lust as well, and lends itself to it then to allegorical digressions of Baroque taste, much appreciated by collectors of that time as well as of today.