The authorship of the work became certain after the discovery of the cartouche with the signature "Antonellus Messaneus me pinxit." and the critics agree on a date from the late 1460s by comparing the Spinola panel with other works by the artist dedicated to the same subject, studied and replicated  by him, creating various versions, among which the closest are judged to be that of the College Alberoni of Piacenza and that in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

The work is part of the Spinola picture gallery held in palazzo di Pellicceria thanks to its purchase, made by Giacomo Spinola di Luccoli documented in 1833.

Together with the famous work in the Prado depicting Rubens painting the Allegory of Peace, the painting of Palazzo Spinola constitutes an extraordinary tribute made by Luca Giordano to the Flemish master whose influence is evident in his work. Here Peace, majestic in his nudity, is surrounded by companions who play and paint, recalling the arts that thrive in peace, and scornfully dispels Mars, god of War, and Hate.

Painted around 1660, shortly after the painting now in Madrid, the canvas comes from Marco Antonio Grillo’s collection and was purchased in 1740 by Costantino Balbi in whose collection it remained until it was inherited by his descendant Violantina Balbi, wife of Giacomo Spinola who in 1824 became owner of  Palazzo di Pellicceria and hence brought it to this building where it is still preserved.

The picture frame is the result of the surprising transformation of its functional nature into an artefact charged with meaning and binds it closely to what it contains. With surprising technical skill, given the small size and the freedom of the lively composition, Filippo Parodi in fact proposes through it the representation of the judgement of Paris, who was designated to indicate the most beautiful of three goddesses, Juno, Minerva and Venus: the latter, however is not among the carved figures, but she is, indicated by the pointing finger of Paris, the one depicted in the painted portrait or, if the hypothesis that the frame may have originally contained a mirror is accepted, the person whose reflection appears and, thanks to the message of the frame, it is proposed to us as the goddess of beauty.

Recorded as present in the Palazzo in various sources and documented in Carlo Giuseppe Raggi’s Guide from as early as 1780, it became part of the patrimony of the residence at an unspecified date, arriving in Genoa from Bologna where it had been produced by the "divine" Guido. The subject, particularly successful in counter-reformist times as an incitement to gentleness, is resolved by Reni by presenting Sacred Love that burns Cupid's arrows thus winning victory over sensual love which is deprived of its weapons.

The canvas in Palazzo Spinola, to which various draft sketches can be attributed, is believed to be an authentic variant of the canvas preserved in the National Museum of San Matteo in Pisa, which is not of certain authorship, and copies of the same subject are known.

During his stay in Rome to follow the bureaucratic process of the Sacra Rota for the annulment of his second marriage (to Maria Geronima De Mari), Paolo Francesco Spinola, last descendant of the Spinola di San Luca, took the opportunity to commission this work by Angelica Kauffmann, then protagonist of the most advanced artistic culture of the city. It is, hence, thanks to her, that we have this canvas (signed 1793) depicting the melancholy face of Paolo Francesco reading in his study, an image indicative of his refined taste and culture. According to the account books kept in the archive it was transferred from Rome (where the painting was executed) to Genoa in 1796 (the archive reports the payment for the transport), while it was only in 1824, that the payment to the gilder Laviosa for the execution of the frame is recorded.

The panel is part of a group of works added to the palazzo's patrimony thanks to an inheritance received from Violantina Balbi, wife of Giacomo Spinola di Luccoli who became the owner of the residence in 1824, it included, among other works, the Allegory of Peace and War by Luca Giordano.

The panel is believed to date from the second decade of the 16th century and has often been compared to the Salvator Mundi, now in the Louvre, which was also believed to be a companion piece even if, rather that the golden background around the figure of the Virgin, it is now a dark and heavy colouring that contrasts with the naturalistic rendering of the figure both in the face and in the soft rendering of the vibrant white drapery of the veil.

Located in the picture gallery of the hall on the second “noble” floor of the building, as part of the renovation and decorative renewal commissioned by Maddalena Doria Spinola in 1734, the painting is fruit of the relationship of Ansaldo Pallavicino with the painter he admired most and from whom in 1652 he purchased a large group of works including the canvas that had originally been placed on the opposite wall. The entry of the animals into the ark was donated by Giacomo Spinola to the Accademia Ligustica, where it is still preserved. Circe, also the result of a purchase by Ansaldo, is still included in the picture gallery on the second “noble” floor, while a second canvas with this subject has remained in the estate of the Spinola villa in San Michele di Pagana which was donated by Paolo and Franco Spinola in 1958 to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Of the rich and numerous array of display silvers that graced the sideboards of Genoese aristocratic residences, arousing the amazement of visitors to the city between the 16th and 17th centuries, this is the only example, preserved in a city museum, and is a precious testimony of that rich production largely the work of a colony of Flemish silversmiths active in Genoa including Matthias Melijn and Gio Aelbosca Belga. These are respectively the authors of the basin and the two vases, also in Palazzo Spinola, commissioned around 1630 by Agostino Pallavicino, the father of Ansaldo and second owner of the palace, to whom the choice of the Colombian subject that unites them is due and which was also taken up in a second basin now lost. Considering the strong public commitment of Agostino in support of the Republic of Genoa, the choice of the figure of Christopher Columbus was intended as an example of resourcefulness and autonomy, as such it also appears in contemporary frescoes and paintings.