Previously attributed to the workshop of Barnabas of Modena or to an anonymous artist, the painting is today unanimously included in the corpus of works by the Modenese artist, as attested by the inscription on the lower part of the central panel. During the restoration in 1985, it was not possible to recover the date of execution (Tagliaferro 1991, p. 64). In this regard, Franco Pesenti considers the work to have been executed around 1370, while Giuliana Algeri, Laura Tagliaferro and Clario Di Fabio have postponed the dating by about a decade. The latter, in fact, identify the two donors represented in the side panels as Doge Nicolò Guarco and his wife Lina di Francesco Onza d'Oro di Coronata (Pesenti 1987, p. 56; Algeri 1991, pp. 90-91; Tagliaferro 1991, pp. 64-65; Di Fabio 1999, p. 62). The polyptych comes from the Church of St. James and St. Philip, for which it was probably intended by the patrons, as confirmed by the presence of a Dominican saint, St. Catherine of Alexandria, the patron saint of the Dominicans, and St. Nicholas of Bari, whose arm was kept in the Genoese convent. The identification of the two saints depicted in the side cusps is problematic. According to Laura Tagliaferro, the Dominican saint could be Margaret of Hungary, St. Agnes of Montepulciano or St. Catherine of Siena, while Giuliana Algeri and Clario Di Fabio propose for the first hypothesis. The saint on the left cusp is instead variously identified as a virgin from the retinue of Saint Ursula, as Saint Margaret of Antioch or generically as a martyr saint (Algeri, 1991, pp. 90-91; Tagliaferro 1991, p. 65; Di Fabio 1999, p. 62). The altarpiece is divided into three compartments, centred, lobed and surmounted by cusps with small columns. In the central compartment, the Madonna and Child is depicted. The Virgin, turned three-quarter to the left and looking towards the observer, is wearing a dark red robe and a blue cloak, the inner part of which can be glimpsed in gold; a transparent veil encircles her head and falls over her breast, forming a wimple. She wraps the Child with her right arm and holds him with her other hand. Jesus, dressed in a pink tunic edged at the hem with a gold chevron, caresses a goldfinch resting on his left arm with his right hand. At the bottom, an inscription in gold letters reads: “BARNABAS DE MUTINA PINXIT...”. In the right-hand compartment St. Nicholas of Bari is depicted standing in bishop's robes, facing the Madonna and Child. The saint holds a book in his left hand and a crosier in his right. At his feet kneels the donor, depicted in profile with clasped hands, wearing red robes and a headdress of the same colour. In the cusp above, a crowned martyr saint is facing the central cusp, with clasped hands wearing a pink dress and cloak. In the left compartment, Saint Catherine of Alexandria holds the palm of martyrdom in her right hand and an open book in her left. The veiled saint wears a blue dress with four buttons on her chest and a pink mantle edged with gold. At her feet is the donatrix, a kneeling young woman with blond hair, wearing a red dress, a red and gold mantle and clasped hands; she is also facing the central panel. Above, a Dominican saint holds a crucifix in her left hand and a heart in her other hand; her gaze is turned towards the central pinnacle where Christ crucified, the Madonna and St. John the Evangelist are represented. The latter, wearing a blue robe and pink cloak, is kneeling beside the cross with his torso bent forward. On the opposite side, the Madonna, with her forehead covered by her cloak, is seated and has her head turned to the left. She points with her right hand to Christ, represented with a white loincloth and head reclined towards the right shoulder, nailed to a cross with a suppedaneum at the bottom and a scroll at the top.

The elevatio animae group of Margaret of Brabant is one of the most famous medieval sculptures. It was commissioned from Giovanni Pisano, the most important sculptor of the time, by Emperor Henry VII as a tribute to his beloved wife Margaret of Brabant who died in Genoa at the age of 36 on the night of 13 December 1311. The funeral monument was erected in the church of San Francesco di Castelletto and placed in the apsis. Later, at the end of the 16th century (before 1602), it was dismembered and reused in the chapel of San Francesco in the same church. With the demolition of the sacred building in the early 19th century, the group was transferred by the Brignole Sale family to Villa Duchessa di Galliera in Voltri, where it remained until the 1870s, when it was rediscovered by Santo Varni. Fragment of the funerary monument of Margaret of Brabant, depicting the elevatio animae. The glorious body of the queen, gazing upwards towards heaven, is lifted by two headless angels.

The desire for revenge of Genoa, defeated and driven out of Acre in 1258 by its Venetian and Pisan rivals, and of the Byzantine Empire, deprived of its legitimate capital by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, came together on 13 March 1261 when the Treaty of Nymphaeum was signed, aimed at guaranteeing Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus the support of the Genoese fleet in the reconquest of Constantinople and, for the Genoese, the acquisition of great commercial advantages in imperial territory. To seal the agreement, Michael VIII gave the Genoese two cloths: one reproducing his image and of which traces are lost, and one consisting of the magnificent Pallium of San Lorenzo.
The Pallium is a masterpiece unique in the world for the unparalleled quality of its embroidery (sciàmito, "siamite", means “with six threads”, indicating the complexity of the weave, usually consisting of two warps and two or four wefts), made with polychrome silks and gold and silver threads, but also for the extraordinary amount of information it provides on the history of Genoa, on the history of the Byzantine Empire, on the relations between these two fundamental players in the history of the Mediterranean, and on Western and Eastern religiosity at a time somewhere between schism and the attempted reunification of the two churches.
The Pallium remained in the Cathedral until 1663 before being moved to the Palazzo dei Padri del Comune, in the mid 19th century to Palazzo Tursi, and finally in the early 20th century to Palazzo Bianco. It was later placed in the Museum of Sant'Agostino, where it will return once the work is completed. The Pallium narrates, in a stylistic language already foreshadowing the manner of the so-called “Palaeologian Revival”, the history and martyrdoms of the three western saints, Lawrence, Sixtus and Hippolytus. The narrative unfolds on two registers; in the centre of the imposing silk swarm is a pivotal image of the Emperor himself who, accompanied by Saint Lawrence and the archangel Michael, enters the Genoese cathedral, dedicated to Saint Lawrence. The emperor Palaeologus is placed in stark contrast to the Roman emperor Decius, persecutor of Christians and protagonist of the stories depicted together with the three martyred saints.

 

This fresco (1292) decorated the apse of the (sadly) now destroyed church of San Michele. The composition and coordination of the figures around the table with the naturalistic elements of the dishes and food on the table is extraordinary. Notice the perspective and the three levels: the city, the characters seated at the table and Magdalene at Christ's feet. Notice the passion with which she is depicted throwing herself at his feet, adoring him and washing his feet with perfumed balms.
Manfredino brings the most recent developments in painting as they were evolving in the Assisi workshops, from which the painter probably moved directly to Genoa, residing there for at least 10 years.

 

The decorative apparatus presents: Animals: fantasy animals. Decorations: geometric patterns. Small bowl with convex bottom. The walls are slightly recessed and painted on an orange-red background with four vertical bands, delimited by cream-colored lines with three cream diamonds inside alternating with fantasy plum-colored zoomorphic figures. Two cream-colored lines are painted, one at the fairing and one on the rim. A black line is visible inside.

Carolina Orsini: “Chronological attribution is difficult due to the persistence of the morphological typology of the phase 6 complex jar until the late horizon. However, the decorations and textile designs seem to indicate belonging to the final phases of the Ica and Chincha cultures (1440- ica 8 - onward).” Vase with a convex bottom. The lower part of the chamber is painted orange, while the upper part is decorated with painted horizontal bands: one red, one with large black discs on a cream ground, one black, one with a zigzag pattern in cream on a red and orange ground, another black, another with black discs on a cream ground, and one red. The horizontal bands are alternated with two vertical bands painted in cream, red, and black discs on a cream ground. The inverted truncated neck has an everted rim decorated with bands painted in black and cream. The inside of the rim is painted orange with a black line.

Figurina votiva antropomorfa in posizione orante, caratteristica della cultura Chancay