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Home>Exhibitions>2021>A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750

Canceled–A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750

Upcoming Exhibition

September 26, 2021 – January 9, 2022
West Building, Main Floor

Due to multiple factors related to the worsening COVID-19 crisis, the National Gallery of Art must cancel our presentation of the exhibition, scheduled for September 26, 2021–January 9, 2022. We are deeply disappointed that the exhibition will not be shown in Washington.

The pandemic has created a number of complications and a level of uncertainty that would compromise our ability to present this highly anticipated exhibition in a manner that meets the expectations of our audiences and adequately tells the story of this important place and period in history. With only weeks before the exhibition was scheduled to open, we were confronted with multiple pandemic-induced challenges. These included uncertainties over international shipping restrictions, the possibility of audience limitations if the pandemic continues to escalate, and concerns over the health and safety of our staff managing an intense installation in close quarters, among other issues.

Photograph of the exhibition catalog

Exhibition Catalog

The catalog for A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750, which features extensive new research and beautiful reproductions, is still available for purchase online.

Purchase Today

A Superb Baroque presents the grandeur of 17th-century Genoa on a scope and scale unprecedented in the United States. Five centuries ago trade and banking transformed the Mediterranean port city of Genoa into a cosmopolitan center of wealth and culture. The newly rich, eager to display their prosperity, invested in constructing and decorating churches, chapels, and palaces. Attracted by lucrative commissions, Rubens, Van Dyck, and other leading painters across Europe swarmed to Genoa. There, they joined local artists in utilizing the opulent baroque style to create the splendid paintings, sculptures, and works on paper seen in this exhibition.

Overview

Trace the rise of the baroque style as it developed from 1600 to 1750 in Genoa, a prosperous port city on the west coast of Italy. There celebrated artists from northern Europe and local artists created works of unparalleled beauty and visual power.

Selected Works

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Detail featured at top: Gregorio De Ferrari, The Death of Saint Scholastica, c. 1700, oil on canvas, Museo Diocesano, Genoa, on deposit from the Abbazia di Santo Stefano. Photo by Luigino Visconti 
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Detail featured at top: Alessandro Magnasco, Garden Party in Albaro, 1745/1749, oil on canvas, Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, PB 81. © Musei di Strada Nuova
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Giulio Cesare Procaccini, The Ecstasy of the Magdalene, 1618/1621, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons’ Permanent Fund, 2002.12.1
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Francesco Biggi, after Domenico Parodi, The She-Wolf with Romulus and Remus, c. 1707, marble, Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, PR 317. Courtesy of Musei di Strada Nuova, Photo by Luigino Visconti
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Gregorio De Ferrari, Saint Michael and the Rebel Angels, c. 1682, pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash, heightened with white, over traces of black chalk, on gray-green paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Elizabeth White Fund, 2018.165.4
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Antonio Travi, Shore with Fishermen and Ruined Tower, 1650/1655, oil on canvas, private collection, courtesy Galerie Canesso, Paris
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Lorenzo De Ferrari, Alexander and the Gordian Knot, 1740/1744, oil on panel, Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, PB 1784. Courtesy of Musei di Strada Nuova, Photo by Luigino Visconti
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Bartolomeo Biscaino, The Nativity, 1650/1655, etching, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1985.54.1
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Lorenzo De Ferrari, Study of an Angel in Flight, c. 1738, black chalk on blue paper, squared in red chalk, National Gallery of Art, Washington, New Century Fund, 2018.172.2
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Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1650/1655, brush with red and blue oil pigments, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Woodner Collection, Gift of Dian Woodner, 2012.7.1
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Domenico Piola, The Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1695, oil on canvas, Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, PB 2778. © Musei di Strada Nuova
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Dutch or Flemish Silversmith, after Bernardo Strozzi, Basin with Scenes from the Life of Cleopatra, c. 1618/1620, silver, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 85.DG.81
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Gregorio De Ferrari, The Infant Moses with Pharaoh’s Crown, 1675/1680, oil on canvas, Collezioni d’Arte Banca Carige, Genoa
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Domenico Piola, Vault with the Immaculate Conception, 1683/1684, pen and brown ink with brush and brown wash over traces of black chalk, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe di Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, D 2131. © Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe di Palazzo Rosso
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Alessandro Magnasco, Saint Augustine and the Child, c. 1740, oil on canvas, Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, PB 2746. © Musei di Strada Nuova

Organization
The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, with special cooperation from the City and Museums of Genoa.

The exhibition is curated by Jonathan Bober, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art; Piero Boccardo, Superintendent of the City Collections of Genoa; and Franco Boggero, director, historic and artistic heritage section, Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio, Genoa.

Other venues
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, March 4–June 19, 2022

Sponsors
The exhibition is made possible by the Robert Lehman Foundation. Additional funding is provided by The Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required.

Banner detail: Gregorio De Ferrari, The Death of Saint Scholastica, c. 1700, oil on canvas, Museo Diocesano, Genoa, on deposit from the Abbazia di Santo Stefano. Photo by Luigino Visconti