The author of this panel is the Anversan painter Joos Van Cleve, a much appreciated artist who, between the second and third decade of the sixteenth century, has frequent relations with Italy and with the Genoese commission realizing - through representatives of the local nobility with interests in Flanders - at least four ancone for churches of the Republic: among these is imposed, for high technical quality and richness of invention, the triptych of the Adoration of the Magi of the church of San Donato, the only large work left in the city.
The Madonna and Child of Palazzo Bianco, painted for private devotion, seems to come from a "Durrës house in Genoa", as attested by an inventory note in the museum, not otherwise documented.
An intimate atmosphere, tender affectionate, characterizes the table, which presents a very elegant Virgin, with a slightly inclined face and three-quarters, which holds in her lap the sleeping Child, with a human pose and a chubby face. Maria, with an expression of great sweetness and grace at the same time, holds between her fingers a twig with a small fruit, painted by the painter with great virtuosity in the detail of the leaves in glimpse, with the edges illuminated by light.

Van Cleve, with a pictorial surface with slight overlapping veils, achieves a particular enameled effect, especially in the incarnations; he also shows great skill in painting the transparent veil that frames the head of the Virgin, the gold seals of his red coat and the fur trim - according to the Flemish fashion - of the dress, in which it is possible to see with the naked eye the underlying preparatory design.
The scene, wrapped in a clear and clear light, opens on the right towards a deep landscape beyond the window: small and close touches of color outline trees, dried trunks and the figure of a traveler on horseback, while in the distance celestial mountains color in the white-blue sky; on the left, instead, a column in red marble alludes to the pagan world, whose sin is redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ.

The work, certainly performed in Genoa and dating to around 1625, shows the deep interest of Van Dyck for Venetian painting and Titian in particular.
To create Vertumno and Pomona in fact, the Flemish artist kept in mind a Titian painting seen in a Genoese collection and sketched by him in a notebook. The painting depicts an episode narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses: Pomona, a splendid nymph in the woods, spent her days taking care of her garden and ignoring the numerous suitors who presented themselves at her gate to court her.

One of these was Vertumno, who ruled the succession of seasons and had the power to change his appearance. Vertumno, after having taken many forms in vain to win the love of Pomona, finally took the appearance of an old woman with a gentle character and praising her beauty and persuading her of the love that Vertumno felt for her, he succeeded in conquering her.

In this painting Van Dyck treats the theme of the awakening of love with sweetness and captures the poetry of this myth, which is expressed by the soft molded body of Pomona, by the light that caresses the bodies and by the gestures and expressions of the protagonists, marked by measured sensuality. In this work (which at the end of the eighteenth century was in the palace of Giorgio Doria di Montaldeo in Strada Nuova and which was donated in 1959 to the Gallery by Marquis Ambrogio Doria) next to the master is also engaged a collaborator, which the critics identified in Jan Roos, The Still Life in the foreground.

Popular scenes, parties and game scenes are the favorite subjects of the Dutch Jan Steen, whose flowery Easter stands out for the high quality of the execution. The work was purchased by the Dukes of Galliera in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century.

It is perhaps the most famous painting by this Genoese artist, who ended his career in the service of Philip II of Spain, whose pictorial process, rather articulate, starts from a gigantism of mannerist mold to arrive at an essential painting, made of almost geometric compositions, whose rigour is emphasized by limited shades in the range and plastered according to simple chords.
The cultural context that determined this "nocturnal" choice was its adherence to the most spiritual tendencies of the Catholic Reformation, while the domestic intonation, of great communicative impact, is aimed at promoting the sacred fact, hinged on the personal and intimate devotion of the client.

The painting (1570-1575) takes its title from the dim light of a candle that can be seen at the edge of the composition.
In reality, what highlights the delicate bending of Mary towards the breastfeeding Child, the cradle that will soon welcome him and the gesture of St Anne who, suspended the spinning, lovingly recommends silence to John and the profile of Joseph that, turned away, is going to another room, leaving women the warm intimacy of this moment, is a grazing light, external, cold. The figure of Jesus, on the other hand, is the only one that emerges completely from the shadows: his pearly flesh seems to shine with its own light, giving the scene a mystical atmosphere.

This great painting by Luciano Borzone, a Genoese painter very close to the ways of the Lombard artists Procaccini, Crespi and Cerano, constituted the altarpiece of the chapel of San Giovanni in the church of Santo Spirito in Genoa, of which Borzone had signed the entire decorative apparatus. It consisted of six smaller canvases, unfortunately dispersed after the dissolution of the religious orders, implemented since 1798 by the Ligurian Republic, making it impossible today to rebuild the whole.
Borzone’s works "in order to be brightly coloured and very well studied in the poem induced Orazio Gentileschi to look for who was the author, and to visit him in his house to buy his friendship, which was between them while they lived inseparable"Thus Soprani, in his Vita de' Pittori e Scultori e Architetti Genovesi (1674), refers to the impression of an artist of fame as Gentileschi before the art of the Genoese master.
The mention of Gentileschi also provides the terminus ante quem of the execution of the work that is placed between 1620, the date of the construction of the chapel and 1621, when the master, during his stay in Genoa, saw it.
It is a youthful work, therefore, but already a masterpiece, in which the master manages to cleverly combine the Venetian culture with the Tuscan. The sobriety of the stage, on which they play a dazzling color and chiaroscuro lighting effects, elegantly highlights the grandeur of a ceremony meditated, solemn, but at the same time affectionate. The delightful scene of the cherubs intent on interpreting the inscription on the bindello forgotten by the Baptist, is a test of skill in the rendering of soft chiaroscuro, contributing to attenuate the austere tone of the ensemble.