Peter Paul Rubens: return to Genoa

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The undisputed protagonist of the Baroque, Peter Paul Rubens, will be on display at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa until next January 22nd. The exhibition, curated by Nils Büttner and Anna Orlando, with the title of “Rubens in Genoa”, is a story of the relationship of the great Flemish painter with the city of the Lantern.

The project, in fact, was born on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the publication in Antwerp of the famous volume by Rubens, “Palazzi di Genova”, published in 1622 and then republished four years later. Both original editions will be on display at the exhibition.

The history of the Republic

As is known, Rubens stayed in Genoa on several occasions between 1600 and 1607 accompanied by Vincenzo Primo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, of whom he was also a court painter. With this exhibition, therefore, the Genoa of the early seventeenth century emerges through this exceptional witness whose works tell the history of the Republic at the height of its power, in a period of singular economic, financial and above all cultural and artistic vivacity. For the first time, more than one hundred and fifty works by the Flemish painter will be visible all together. Portrait of Violante Maria Spinola Serracoming from England and the San Sebastiannever exhibited in Italy and coming from Amsterdam, which has recently been found and which, thanks to an impressive documentary research, can now be referred to the commission of the famous leader Ambrogio Spinola.

Without forgetting the youth Self portraitwhere a twenty-seven-year-old Rubens is seen and who, thanks to the exhibition, returns to the town where it was executed around 1604.

The project is based on a long path of scientific studies and insights by the curators, as well as the support of a prestigious international honorary scientific committee, made up of the greatest connoisseurs of the subject. In the city, moreover, the visitor can follow a real “Rubensian itinerary” to discover the masterpieces in their permanent locations, such as the two altarpieces of the Church of the Gesù, The Circumcision from 1605 and the miracles of Blessed Ignazio di Loyola from 1620, located a few steps from Palazzo Ducale and still located on the original altars.