PR 50

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 125; Larghezza: 100

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Cento opere di Van Dyck - Genova - 1955<br>Il tempo di Rubens. Da Anversa a Genova. Opere del seicento fiammingo. - Genova - 1987<br>Van Dyck a Genova. Grande pittura e collezionismo. - Genova - 1997

The painting has been part of the Brignole-Sale picture gallery since before 1684, the year in which the inventory of Gio. Francesco I's possessions was drawn up, in which it is cited as “Portrait of the jeweler Pucci and his son by Antonio Vandick.” Vandyckian autography has been questioned in the past by Barnes (2004), but it is entirely plausible that in the last years of his Genoese sojourn, the period in which the canvas under consideration was made, the artist employed collaborators to carry out the numerous commissions. The subject of the portrait corresponds to that “Giacomo Puchi” who participated in the “callega,” or public auction of the property of Costantino Pinelli, who died in August 1622, buying a number of gold and silver objects that can be linked to his trade as a jeweler. Next to him appears his son, identifiable as Alberto Pucci, who was born on July 9, 1623 and baptized in the basilica of Nostra Signora delle Vigne, the goldsmiths' quarter. (Santamaria in Genoa 2018, p. 204) Portrait of Giacomo Pucci seated, on his right his son Alberto.

PR 115

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 241; Larghezza: 148

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La bella Italia - Torino - 2011-2012<br>Anversa et Genova: un sommet dans la peinture baroque - Anversa - 2003<br>Van Dyck a Genova - Genova - 1997<br>Cento opere di Van Dyck - Genova - 1955

Although in the past it has been attributed to Rubens (Zeri 1955), the painting is now agreed to be a work from the early years of Antoon van Dyck's Genoese sojourn, thanks in part to the 1997 restoration, which made it possible to highlight the painting technique used. The effigy, dressed in the Spanish fashion of the first decades of the 17th century, certainly belongs to the Spinola family, as evidenced by the coat of arms visible on the balustrade behind the subject. In 2012 Tordella identified the subject with Filippo Spinola, third count of Tassarolo, from a portrait drawing by Ottavio Leoni from around the same years (1623-1624; Tordella 2012 in “History of Art,” 132). In 1728 the painting was purchased by Gio. Francesco II for Palazzo Rosso, where it still stands today. Before that date, the work is known to have been in the collection of Cristoforo Lercari (Boccardo in Antwerp 2003, p. 80). The conformation of the elaborate twisted column behind the effigy is credibly inspired by that painted by Rubens in 1620 in his portrait of Aletheia Talbot, Countess of Arundel; however, the aforementioned restoration also revealed that, in an earlier draft, the artist had conceived of a simpler, cylindrical-shaped column, very similar to the one outlined in the drawing preserved in the Albertina in Vienna, which, as a result, was considered possibly preparatory for the present painting (Boccardo in Antwerp 2003, p. 80). Full-length portrait of a gentleman.

PB 191

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 142; Larghezza: 119

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Mostra d'arte antica aperta nelle sale del Palazzo Bianco - Genova - 1892<br>Cento opere di Van Dyck - Genova - 1955<br>Anthony Van Dyck - Washington - 1990<br>Van Dyck a Genova. Grande pittura e collezionismo - Genova - 1997

The painting, datable around 1625, appears to be a reinterpretation of a canvas of similar subject painted by Titian for Philip II of Spain, now in the National Gallery in London. The latter must have been known to the artist probably through an engraving by Martino Rota, as is confirmed by the fact that the composition conceived by Van Dyck reproduces the Titian one in counterpart, that is, by reversing it “in mirror form.” The subject of the work is the Gospel episode in which the Pharisees try to persuade Jesus to take a stand on the controversial issue of taxes and recognition of Rome's political authority. When questioned about the permissibility of tribute to Caesar, Jesus asked to be shown a coin and, pointing to the effigy of the emperor imprinted on it, uttered the phrase “give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's,” inviting them to make a distinction between what belongs to the emperor and what belongs to God. (Besta 2010, p. 76) The painting depicts Christ conversing with two people.

PR 48

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 282; Larghezza: 198

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Cento opere di Van Dick - Genova - 1955<br>Van Dyck a Genova. Grande pittura e collezionismo. - Genova - 1997<br>Van Dyck - Anversa - 1999

The portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole-Sale, together with that of his wife Paolina Adorno, constitute one of the rare examples of en pendant portraits by Van Dyck that still remain together. They are also the only ones among the fifty from Van Dyck's Genoese period for which the specific payment recorded in the account books of the Brignole-Sale family in 1627 is preserved: with a third painting, depicting Geronima Sale Brignole with her daughter Aurelia, his mother and sister respectively, they were paid to the painter in 1627-the final year of his Genoese sojourn-a total of 747 liras. These are probably the last paintings executed by the Flemish artist in Genoa, a city where he arrived in 1621 as Rubens' “best disciple,” soon enjoying extraordinary success with the new city nobility, who, well aware of the even symbolic value of the images and the celebratory message they conveyed, competed to be portrayed by the young artist. Anton Giulio Brignole - Sale, inheriting from his maternal grandfather the fief of Groppoli and the related title of marquis was officially ascribed to the Genoese aristocracy in 1626; the following year, barely 22 years old, he had himself depicted by Van Dyck on horseback and in a courtly pose, until a few years before reserved for a sovereign, emphatically celebrating his newly achieved social status. The compositional model of this equestrian portrait depends on famous Rubensian examples such as the Gio. Carlo Doria (Genoa, gallery of Palazzo Spinola) and the Duke of Lerma (Madrid, Museo del Prado), but the pictorial material with which it is made turns out to be very different from the rich and mellow material of the famous master. The Palazzo Rosso canvas, in fact, is constructed with a very rapid technique of execution, played for glazes of white lead and varnish but not of “body” colors, which ensures a great effect of matter without any real substance, as typical of the works of 1626-1627. They have always belonged to the household picture gallery and are the only ones to have remained in the residence of the family for whom they were painted. Ridolfo I, son of the effigy couple, brought them to the Brignole-Sale family's new residence, Palazzo Rosso, after the mid-17th century, where they remain today. In 1687 they were bought back by the cadet Gio. Francesco I, at a time when, his brother having died without male descendants, they would have ended up in foreign hands. Portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole-Sale while sitting on a horse.

PR 106

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 158; Larghezza: 126

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Bernardo Strozzi - Genova - 1995

The painting, first documented at Palazzo Rosso in the 1748 manuscript catalog, constitutes an 'early work by Bernardo Strozzi, prior to his departure for Venice. A strong Lombard-Caravaggesque imprint can be seen in the strong chiaroscuro of the composition, in the basket of fruit placed in the upper left-hand corner of the second floor, and in the attention to the details of daily life, of Nordic derivation. Maria's almost “common” face and the disheveled pose of her figure, with her foot resting on the work basket, prompted Federico Alizeri to describe her as an “ignoble representation,” made up of “semblance and vulgar acts” (Alizeri 1847), although he could not fail to recognize at the same time the “dazzling effect of chiaroscuro,” and the “flesh all true palpable, of great tone in every cloth and accessory.” Reflectographic investigations revealed two regrets: Strozzi had also depicted the right foot of the Madonna, and the table on which the basket of fruit is placed was covered by a “Holbein” rug, whose design is clearly readable. (Serra in “Musei di Strada Nuova” 2010, p. 38) The painting depicts the Madonna and Child Jesus and St. John.