The portrait of the jeweler Pucci with his son was purchased by Gio.Francesco II Brignole - It goes up in the period after Van Dyck’s stay in Genoa (1621-27)That is, when the fashion of owning his works was transient about whether the characters portrayed were related to the owners or not. The identity of the character is attested only by the inventories of the Brignole-Sale house, whose testimony is corroborated, at least as regards the activity of the effigy, by the jewelry represented on the right in the foreground. It is precisely his nature as a mercantile portrait that explains, on the one hand, the reference to iconographic typologies of a somewhat archaic taste, on the other, the icasticity of the jeweler’s gesture, which with the hand points to the spectator and the son the jewels, the source of his well-being, on display on the table: excessive and almost trivial gesture for a Magnificent, but natural for a jeweler. After an almost uninterrupted critical tradition attesting the autography vandyckiana, the restoration work conducted on the occasion of the exhibition "Van Dyck in Genoa. Great painting and collecting" (Genoa, 1997) reopened the discussion, supporting some critics attributing it to a minor Flemish painter, motivated by the weakness of workmanship and the defects of design and invention.

The work was purchased by Gio.Francesco II Brignole-Sale from the Lercari family in 1728 and, as can be deduced from the coat of arms on the plinth of the column, the effigy was a member of the Spinola family. This Portrait of a young man from Spinola’s house is one of the first portraits made by the painter in Genoa, and still marked is the influence of Rubens, his first important master in Antwerp: In this key it is also worth reading the choice to mark the background architectural fifth with a twisted column.  In recent times, authoritative scholars, precisely because of the presence of such a column, have even questioned the traditional attribution, in favor of that to Pieter Paul Rubens. The very recent cleaning, however, revealed a non-rubensian construction of the painting and compositional characters consistent with what was observed in the other Genoese vandyckian paintings, restored on the occasion of the exhibition of 1997 "Van Dyck in Genoa. Great painting and collecting".

The canvas, referring to the period of the painter’s stay in Genoa, can be dated to around 1625 and reveals a deep influence of Venetian painting and, in particular, of Tiziano both as regards the pictorial technique and chroma both as regards the formal structure. The work is in fact a reinterpretation by Van Dyck of a composition of similar subject painted by the painter Cadore for Philip II of Spain, now preserved at the National Gallery in London and, probably known to the Flemish through an engraving by Martino Rota. The latter fact explains why the representation of Titian is here taken in counterpart, on the basis of the inverted engraving image.
The narrated episode, drawn from the synoptic gospels, refers to the artificiosamin controversy which the Pharisees and Herodians attempt to involve Jesus in taking a position on the controversial controversy over taxes and, more generally, on the question of recognition of the political authority of Rome. The Pharisees, bitter enemies of the Roman power in Palestine, ask Christ whether it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or not, he responds to show him a coin and asks who the image and the inscription that is above; ;the "adversaries" reply that image and inscription are of Caesar, the image was in fact that of the emperor Tiberius.
Jesus, pointing to the effigy on the coin, says "Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s", thus implicitly inviting the Pharisees to distinguish between civil authority and religion.
The painting, which as early as 1748 was in the collection Brignole - Sale at Palazzo Rosso, came to the City of Genoa for legate of Maria Brignole - Sale De Ferrari, Duchess of Galliera, in 1889.

Anton Van Dyck (1599-1641), an Anversan painter, worked as Rubens' assistant from about 1616 to 1620. He travelled extensively in Italy from November 1621 until 1627, during which time he worked several times in Genoa, becoming the official portraitist of the most wealthy members of the local patriciate.
This panel painting completed a series of the Twelve Apostles, once present in the Serra Genoese quadreria, currently divided among various collections of the world.A youthful work, dating back to the period of activity of Van Dyck before his arrival in Genoa, is to be put in relation, with the other twelve subjects, to a similar series painted by Rubens. Even in the style, in fact, the influence of the oldest teacher is evident, so much so that in the past the table of Palazzo Rosso was attributed to the latter.

The portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole-Sale and that of his wife Paolina Adorno are one of the rare examples of portraits made by Van Dyck that remained together. With a third painting, depicting Geronima Sale-Brignole with his daughter Aurelia, his mother and sister respectively, they were paid to the painter in 1627 - the final year of his stay in Genoa - for a total of
of 747 lire.
These are probably the last paintings executed by the Flemish in Genoa, the city where he arrived in 1621 as "best disciple" of Rubens, soon enjoying an extraordinary success with the new city nobility who competed to be portrayed by the young artist, well aware of the symbolic value of the images and the celebratory message they convey
Anton Giulio Brignole - Sale, inheriting from his maternal grandfather the fief of Groppoli and the relative title of marquis, was officially ascribed to the Genoese aristocracy in 1626; the following year, just twenty-two years old, is represented by Van Dyck on horseback and in a courtly pose, until a few years ago reserved exclusively for sovereigns, which emphatically celebrates the social status achieved recently.
The compositional model of this equestrian portrait depends on famous Rubensian examples such as Gio. Carlo Doria (Genoa, Galleria di Palazzo Spinola) and the Duke of Lerma (Madrid, Prado Museum) but the pictorial material with which it is made is quite different from the rich and pasty one of the famous master. The canvas of Palazzo Rosso, in fact, is built with a very rapid technique of execution, played for glazing of biacche and paints but not of "body" colors, which ensures a great effect of matter without any real substance, as typical of the Flemish works between 1626 and 1627.  

Naturalism and color are the essential features of this work by Bernardo Strozzi, one of the most significant and appreciated interpreters of Genoese art in the seventeenth century.
The fullness of Rubens’s chromaticism, the attention to the details of daily life proper to Nordic culture, the chiaroscuro of Lombard-Caravaggesque imprint are reflected in the face of Mary, in her dismembered pose, in the work basket, described with meticulous care, and in the scandalous detail of the bare foot, reddened by the burning. The basket of fruit, on the side in the background, then, is almost a copy of the famous canvas that Caravaggio executed for Federico Borromeo in Milan, and attests to Strozzi’s admiration for this artist as well as his propensity for genre painting, the still life in particular.
This canvas is placed in the early period of Strozzi, when he, much loved by the Genoese aristocrats, and Capuchin friar, was able to reconcile the mission of religious with the management of the painter’s workshop.
However, on Gio’s death. Charles Doria (1625), his influential protector, the ecclesiastical order, began to create problems regarding his artistic activity, motivating them, in the first place, with an excessive propensity to represent sacred subjects with tones judged prosaic and vulgar. In fact, several nineteenth-century critics, with regard to this painting, have placed the emphasis on this aspect: “[…] Ignoble representation, appearance and vulgar acts", writes Federico Alizeri in his Guida artistica per la città di Genova (1847), but adds: "[... ] of a dazzling chiaroscuro effect, of flesh all real palpable, of great tone in every cloth and accessory".
The disagreements with the religious order forced Strozzi to leave Genoa to take refuge in Venice, where he continued his artistic activity until his death, updating his style with a brighter and more sumptuous palette.

The main characteristic of this painting, almost emblematic of the art of Bernardo Strozzi, is the color that, together with the pictorial technique and the choice of the genre subject, leads him to a Flemish matrix. Of the Genoese editorial offices of this type of subject, that of Palazzo Rosso is certainly the most famous, perhaps also because it has been known for more time, since the Brignole-Sale collection was visited by travellers, scholars and connoisseurs since the eighteenth century. The years 1624-1625 are the most credible moment for the execution of the work, which introduces a subject "genre", of which The cook, a little later, will be the most significant example in the production of Strozzi.
The canvas is documented at Palazzo Rosso from 1684, among the assets of Gio.Francesco I Brignole-Sale (1643-1694). The arrangement of the painting on the walls of the apartment on the second noble floor involved an enlargement of the canvas that remained until 1959, when it was restored to its original size, as well as restored. In 1995, a new painting and reflectographic analysis were carried out which showed that the fiffer initially sketched was somewhat shorter: the elongation would seem to be more justified by the intent to obtain a greater depth of field.

The great Saint Teresa in Glory is the work of Bernardo Strozzi and was executed for the high altar of a Genoese church dedicated to the saint, which no longer exists today. Teresa d'Avila, in the black dress of the Discalced Carmelites, stands in the center of the painting with her eyes turned to the sky, while from above a golden light rains down that tears apart the black clouds that make her crown. The triumph of angels bears the attributes that accompany the saint in her glory. The open book refers to her activity as a writer and to being proclaimed, along with a few other women, Doctor of the Church. The dart symbolizes the arrow that hurts her heart, in which the name of Jesus is engraved, because she called herself Teresa of Jesus. In the 17th century, the pictorial and sculptural images of the mystic, Spanish reformer of the Carmelite order, were multiplied following her canonization in 1622. So the work could not be performed before this date. It is, therefore, one of the last paintings made in his city by the painter and Capuchin friar, before taking refuge in Venice in 1633. It was one of the artist’s rare works visible in public. After the suppression, the monastery became the seat of the Royal College of Marina in 1817 and the painting remained there until 1875

Bernardo Strozzi painted this suggestive penitent Magdalene for the convent of San Silvestro, as evidenced by an ancient inscription on the back of the painting. The Saint, released from her luxurious clothes, appears wrapped in a jagged wisteria grey cloth. It is emaciated in the face and scarmilled, the eyes are hollowed and reddened by long penance, the skull in the foreground to remind her of the transience of the world and the jar of ointments with which she sprinkled the feet of Christ relegated to the left margin of the painting. The composition expresses a strong pathos and emotional involvement. The figure is defined by the artist’s chromatic ability in the sharp outlines against the light: note, for example, the beautiful play of light between the fingers of the folded hands or the glares on the cheek of the saint, on the top of the skull and on the silver of the ointment jar.

In this Salome with the head of the Baptist we find the typical characters of Matthias Stomer’s painting: the attention to the visual perception of things, typical of Flemish painting, and the Caravaggesque lesson. These two aspects blend in an original way in the works of the Dutch artist, who was active especially in Italy. In his paintings realism is transformed into a sort of "verism" in which, as through a lens, the attention of the viewer focuses on the exasperated, detailed formal rendering, even more than on the subject.