4238

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 30; Larghezza: 20

carta- inchiostro

Letter from Christopher Columbus to Nicolò Oderico

Columbus has just returned from his fourth and final voyage and notes, among the many disappointments that his return has brought him, that he has received no reply from Genoa to his letter of 2 April 1502. The letters had actually been sent via the new Genoese ambassador to the Spanish court, Gerolamo Di Negro, but they were never delivered to Christopher or his son. Columbus is bitter and disappointed: he writes that ‘those who serve the community serve no one’. He then informs his friend of Queen Isabella's death and the problems her son Diego is encountering in enjoying his rights. With his ties to Genoa now severed, except for personal friendships, Columbus began the last period of his life, enjoying material comforts such as money and servants but suffering personal anguish over his worsening health and the future of his descendants. This period ended with his death at the Spanish court in Valladolid on 20 May 1506. Handwritten letter.

4237

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 30; Larghezza: 20

carta- inchiostro

Letter from Christopher Columbus to the Protectors of the Purchases of St. George

Columbus expresses nostalgia and declares, ‘although my body is here, my heart is always there,’ and entrusts his son Diego to the Republic. In return, he announces that a tenth of his income will be paid to Genoa as a discount on the tax on grain, wine and foodstuffs. He then announces that he will send his Book of Privileges, so that it may be known and preserved in order to counter the court's attempts to delegitimise him. Handwritten letter.

4236

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 30; Larghezza: 20

carta- inchiostro

Letter from Christopher Columbus to Nicolò Oderico

In 1502, hostility towards Columbus and his family grew at court. In this psychological climate of loneliness, nostalgia for Genoa grew, but above all, concern for the future of his legitimate son, Don Diego, took precedence: from many signs at court, Christopher had the feeling that upon his death, his son would be stripped of many of the privileges he had accumulated. For this reason, he took precautions, sending two copies of his “Privileges” - the Code of the same name - to Genoa and taking action at the Banco di San Giorgio to seek a protector for his son's interests. Handwritten letter.

4235

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 30; Larghezza: 20

carta- inchiostro

Code of Privileges of Christopher Columbus

Announced in a letter to the Protectors, the ‘Code’ arrived in Genoa via Francesco Rivarolo, a shipowner and merchant residing in Seville, who delivered it to Ambassador Oderico with instructions to keep it for the Navigator's children, should they need it for their legal disputes. In 1670, Oderico's heirs donated the code to the Republic.

Written by one or more Spanish copyists, it contains a comprehensive collection of all the notarial deeds and documents proving the discovery and the rights attributed to him by the Spanish. The document was drawn up in four copies: one was entrusted to Father Gorricio, of the convent of Las Cuevas in Seville, perhaps Columbus's best friend; another was sent to the Indies with Columbus's attorney, Carvajal, who needed it to defend the admiral's interests, and two copies were entrusted, at different times, to Nicolò Oderico to keep in Genoa and entrust to the Banco di San Giorgio.

The first two volumes were lost over the centuries: only an extract from the Codex remains in Providence (USA, Rhode Island), probably written later by Columbus' descendants. The two manuscripts sent to Genoa, on the other hand, remained for decades in the Oderico family archives and then passed to the archives of the Republic: here they were removed by French Napoleonic emissaries and only the copy presented here returned to the city, the other remaining in Paris.

The Codex, rich in decorations and small exotic miniatures, was completed on 22 March 1502 and also contains a letter received just a week earlier from Valencia de la Torre. It can be identified by the “red cordovan bag” in which it was originally sent and which still accompanies the document today. Manuscript codex with leather cover.

MSA 3670

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 143; Larghezza: 74; Profondità: 78.5

marmo bianco di Carrara scolpito e levigato

Madonna Carrega

The statue comes from the Palazzo di Tobia Pallavicino in Via Garibaldi and is one of the masterpieces produced in Genoa by the great sculptor Pierre Puget from Marseilles. Coming from Rome, Puget lived in Genoa one of the most productive seasons of his life, from 1661 to 1668, favouring the introduction of the Baroque in the Ligurian capital. The influence of Michelangelo's Bruges Madonna and also Bernini's production can be seen in the work. This sculpture, known as the “Madonna Carrega”, has a high emotional impact. The child is plump and is caught seeking his mother's attention, while Mary looks into the distance, perhaps foreshadowing her dramatic future.

MSA 1017

Unità di misura: cm; Larghezza: 170; Lunghezza: 367

affresco

Frescoed chapel with Virgin Mary, Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of St. Lawrence and the Four Apostles

The fresco fragments come from a private chapel in the Sacchi Nemours palace in Piazza San Matteo, from which they were taken in 1936 and donated to the municipality. The assumption of the Virgin and the four Apostles are depicted on the vault of the Chapel. The side lunettes depict the martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist and the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, while the vaults of the arches are frescoed with putti and floral decorations.

MSA 3552

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 219; Larghezza: 74; Profondità: 90

marmo bianco apuano scolpito

The Abduction of Helen

Pierre Puget, active in Genoa since the 1660s, produced some of his most prestigious works for private individuals and religious institutions. Among them, for the Palazzo di Pantaleo Spinola in Strada Nuova, the Ratto di Elena (c. 1680). Sculptural group in white marble characterised by an animated spiral composition agitated by a typical “baroque wind”. All the characters and elements that characterise the scene move and balance each other: from the animated sea on which the ship floats to the right hand of Helena, which concludes the emotional spiral of the event at the top.

MSA 249

Unità di misura: cm; Profondità: 18; Diametro: 71

marmo bianco

Clipeus with the face of Christ

The tondo was executed in 1540 for the St Catherine's Gate on the eastern city wall. It remained in place until 1837, when the gate was demolished. It was later walled in the so-called Arconi dell'Acquasola, from which it was removed on 16 October 1877. It was originally placed above the epigraph (inventory number MSA 248). Marble clipeus with the face of Christ in high relief.

MSA 516

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 129; Larghezza: 277; Profondità: 29

pietra nera di promontorio

Hanging capital with coats of arms

It was purchased by the municipality in 1887 at an auction of Santo Varni's collection. Window arch pediment decorated with two chiselled coats of arms. Each coat of arms is surmounted by a helmet with an eagle-shaped crest. The whole space is richly decorated with plant motifs: a bearded male head emerges just above the setting point of the object. The coats of arms are probably identifiable as arms of the Doria family.

MSA 253

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 212; Larghezza: 138; Profondità: 45

legno di cirmolo scolpito- dipinto

LA SACRA SELVA. SCULTURA LIGNEA IN LIGURIA TRA XII E XVI SECOLO - GENOVA - 2004

Crucifix of the Caravana

The wooden crucifix is currently attributed to a German artist and dated to around 1340, the year in which the Compagnia dei Caravana, made up of dock labourers generally from Bergamo, built their chapel in the church of the Carmine. The work has been related to the sorrowful crucifixes of the Rhenish-Westphalian current due to its great expressive force and the bare, contracted body (cf. Crucifix of St. Maria Im Kapitol, Cologne, first decade of the 14th century), from which it differs, however, in its less exasperated nature (Botto 1994, pp. 8-14, 45; Di Fabio 2004, pp. 124-125). Devoid of the original cross, it was perhaps equipped with a gem-studded cross in imitation of the tree of life, like most of these. The Caravana crucifix is similar to the one in the church of San Pietro in Gimignano and the one in the church of Santa Margherita in Cortona, so much so that it can be assumed that they are the work of the same hand (Di Fabio 2004, p. 124). It is also about thirty years after the crucifix in the Church of the Magdalene, also the work of an active German artist. The artefact, therefore, fits into the cultural panorama of Liguria in the early 14th century, characterised by the presence of artists from the German area who came into contact with and were influenced by the artistic culture of Pisa, Siena and Umbria (Di Fabio 2004, p. 124; Donati 2004, pp. 25-27). Christ crucified represented with the body gaunt and contracted, the head reclined on the chest and falling to the right with eyes closed and mouth open, arms outstretched. His hips are encircled by a loincloth with two drooping flaps. A clot of blood oozes from the deep wound in the ribcage and the skin of the right foot is torn, leaving the bones exposed.