According to Vassili Kandinsky, the colour blue was an impulse of humans looking for their intimate nature - a colour that attracts humans towards the infinite and reawakens a desire for purity and a craving for the supernatural. The same thoughts must have been subconsciously shared by those who had commissioned the canvas that had to portray the Passion of Christ.

The blue canvas, painted in monochrome, are imprecisely halfway between popular devotion and cultured art. They were in the Abbey of St. Nicholas of the Bush in Polcevera Valley and they were made in fibre of linen dyed in indigo and painted with white lead. They are fully entitled to be considered illustrious ancestors of the canvas of Genoa or jeans. The collection is made of fourteen canvas, and dates back from 1538 to late XVIIth century. They were inspired by Albrecht Durer’s engravings portraying the Little Passion. The canvas were purchased in 2001 by the Italian State and they belong to the Fabrics Collection of the Archaeological Authority of Liguria, which placed them temporarily in the Museum for now. According to recent studies, these canvas represented the “sepulcrum” or Altar of Repos, an ephemeral setup for Holy Week. Probably they were placed inside the church to create a small chapel for the devotees.

An extraordinary ivory Immacolata (second half 17th century) that illustrates the truly uncommon skill of the craftman in working this material. Unfortunately, the provenance of this genuine masterpiece is unknown, but its iconography suggests Genoese affiliations despite the fact that some details (in particular the complicated hairstyle) would point to the hand of a Nordic artist. Exactly who the artist was is difficult to say. Many foreign sculptors (Flemish, French, German) working in ivory came to Italy - and Genoa was one of the principal destinations - to refine their art in carving, and then, often, they stayed or settled in Italy.

Similarly there were, of course, numerous Italian artists working in ivory. They, like their foreign colleagues, produced works in various materials: not only ivory, but also stone, wood and metals. Unfortunately almost none of them signed or dated their works so we are left to admire a masterpiece that stands out among the ivories of the time while investigating an intriguing open question.

The four Evangelists are depicted inside niches, while the ovals show the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, San Lorenzo and San Sebastiano. The date and the name of the author can be read on the front bottom right: «Melchior Suez Ann. Dom. MDIC ": the artist was commissioned to reuse the four statues of the Evangelists which had been produced in 1568 in Antwerp for an earlier proposed design of the Corpus Domini processional ark.

It is the oldest known ark to have been used to preserve the ashes of St. John the Baptist. The shape is that of a rectangular building with a sloped “roof” covering  which extends beyond the “walls”, the work is decorated with plant motifs. The panels which compose it tell the life of the Christ’s precursor.

On the front face are the scenes of the artyrdom: Herodias instigates Salome, Herod attends the dance of Salome, the servant carries the head of the Baptist, the executioner is about to perform the Beheading. The front side and the two short sides are decorated with precious  stones, rectangular and oval shaped, cut cabochon. According to a later tradition - the seventeenth-century ark was reported to be a devotional offering from the Emperor Federico Barbarossa.

According to tradition, the dish was used to bear the Baptist's severed head after his martyrdom: it is an exceptional piece for its artistic quality, for its devotional importance, and for its intrinsic value. The dish is the product of two different epochs: the original container is made of chalcedony, and is of Roman production from the first century AD., probably commissioned by an emperor.

The metal decoration that frames and characterizes its centre with the representation of the head of the Baptist is a French work from the early fifteenth century: in gold with rubies and enamel. The client who commissioned this work was likely to have been King Charles VI himself or the Duke of Burgundy or that of Berry, its first recorded owner was Cardinal Jean Balue, a leading figure of mid-15th century France, advisor and friend of the King of France, and much more, a leading exponent of the Valois dynasty. It was donated by the cardinal to Pope Innocent VIII, who himself a Genoese, assigned it to the Protection of the Chapel of St. John the Baptist in his native city.

The ark was created in order to carry the ashes of St. John the Baptist, patron saint of Genoa, on the occasion of his feast (June 24), a ritual that is still maintained today. The ashes, preserved in the cathedral inside the altar of the chapel dedicated to the Saint, were recovered by the Genoese from the city of Mira in 1098, at the time of the First Crusade. The ark was commissioned by the Priors of the Chapel and produced between 1438 and 1445. The overall design is attributable to the Ligurian Teramo Danieli, who, however was subsequently replaced by another Ligurian artist  Simone Caldera (previously active in Siena) due to his artistic culture which was of an international level.
The shape of the ark is that of a miniature cathedral topped with heavily decorated spires and pinnacles. At the four corners two evangelists: St. John and St. Mattew and the city’s two patron saints: St. George and St. Lawrence. In the central part the story of the John the Baptist is told in its ten most significant episodes, from the announcement of his birth to his burial following his martyrdom.

The cabinet, or box, in gilded silver, is decorated with pearls and enamel; the feet, in the form of winged monsters, are in rock crystal; the internal top in semi-precious stone. Made within the Florentine Grand Ducal manufactories it was not originally intended for religious use - it is more likely that it was to be used as a jewellery box - the cabinet in the mid-17th century belonged to the Genoese Giovanni Pinceti. It was bought from his heirs in 1665, for the sum of almost fourteen thousand lire by the Protector of Chapel of St. John the Baptist who selected it to be used for the exhibition of the Baptist's ashes.

The reliquary, characterized along the shaft by a thick decoration called "repoussè", was probably produced at the time of the wedding of the emperor Andronicus III of Byzantium Palaeologus to Giovanna di Savoia (who then adopted the name of Anna). Shortly thereafter it was placed in the church of the Genoese colony who, since 1273, had settled in the Constantinopolitan suburb of Pera.

In 1461, after the Turkish conquest of the city, the Genoese transported the reliquary to their homeland where it was placed in the Franciscan monastery of Nostra Signora del Monte, it remained there until 1810, when following the suppression of the monastery, it came into the possession of the Cathedral.