The altarpiece was commissioned from Bernardo Strozzi for the high altar of the church of Santa Teresa, which was later destroyed. It was probably painted by the artist around the time of the saint's canonisation in 1622, and certainly not before 1619, the year the church itself was founded. The painter's attention here is entirely focused on the pictorial and chromatic rendering of the upward movement, achieved through the vertical scanning of the clouds and the deliberate contrast between the shaded areas of the lower register, at the feet of the saint, and the golden gash of the sky that awaits her, framing her face. (ORLANDO, SANGUINETI 2020, p. 64) The painting depicts Saint Teresa in glory surrounded by cherubs.

The painting is an early work by Strozzi, dating from before his move to Venice, and can be dated to around 1620. It depicts Mary Magdalene, shown in half-length with her face in profile and her torso in three-quarter view, praying with her hands clasped towards a cross, from which a light seems to emanate. Her emaciated face betrays the long period of penance she spent in the desert, while her open mouth reveals her spiritual tension. The hands have been recognised as being directly derived from Albrecht Dürer's famous 1508 drawing, now preserved in the Albertina in Vienna, depicting a pair of hands clasped in prayer. (LUIG in Berlin 2003, p. 124) The painting depicts Mary Magdalene in penitence, engaged in prayer.

Correctly attributed to Matthias Stom by Attilio Podestà (Podestà in ‘Studi di storia dell'arte’ 1971, pp. 249-255), the painting depicts a voluptuous half-length Salome leaning on a table, holding a silver basin containing the lifeless head of John the Baptist, martyred at the behest of Herod precisely to please the beautiful Salome, daughter of his mistress, Herodias. The bright colours and clear light contrast with the typical nocturnal character of many of Stom's paintings in Italy, revealing instead the Nordic influence of his training. Given the success of the painter's work in Genoa (Zennaro 2011, I, pp. 371-376), it cannot be ruled out that this work was commissioned or purchased on behalf of a Genoese collector, although nothing is yet known about its historical provenance. (PRIARONE in Frisinga 2023, pp. 186-189) The painting depicts Salome flanked by her maid, holding a plate with the head of John the Baptist on it.

The painting dates back to 1615-1616, immediately before his official consecration as the best living artist in Bologna through the altarpiece of the Assumption destined for the Genoese church of Gesù. From the age of twenty-five, he made frequent and lengthy stays in Rome, where he was greatly appreciated by the Pope's family and other members of the papal court. This canvas, depicting Saint Sebastian, who according to tradition was a Roman soldier originally from Gaul martyred during the reign of Diocletian, must be the result of that kind of commission, because in addition to its high pictorial quality, recent analyses have shown that it is a valuable work, given that lapis lazuli was widely used for the blue of the sky, which was so expensive that it was usually supplied or paid for separately by the client. The image, in keeping with the classical ideals of Reni's poetics, does not show the body of a martyr scarred by arrows and covered in blood, but the idealised body of a young man whose beauty is decidedly tinged with sensuality. Particularly significant in this canvas is the positioning of the saint's figure, as the 17th-century Bolognese historian Carlo Cesare Malvasia attests to the artist's ability to paint “heads looking upwards”. Reni revisited this subject several times during his career: the painting now in the Prado Museum in Madrid dates from 1617-18, while the one in the National Art Gallery in Bologna dates from 1639-40; there are also a large number of copies of all of them. Cardinal Borghese also wanted a similar version, at least in large part the work of the artist's workshop, which is now preserved in the Capitoline Picture Gallery. The painting depicts Saint Sebastian tied to a tree and pierced by arrows.

The four paintings kept in Palazzo Rosso are part of a scattered series of Twelve Apostles - originally completed by images of Christ and the Virgin for a total of fourteen paintings - commissioned by the noble Gio. Carlo Doria to the Bolognese artist, but Milanese by adoption, Procaccini; a letter from the painter Simon Vouet to the client testifies the execution in the autumn of 1621.
A second letter written by Horace Fregoso to the Doria, however, in December of the same year, documented a serious infirmity of Procaccini, for which the critics had assumed that only Saint Thomas was at the hands of the master and that the other paintings, which appeared inferior in quality, had been made by some help. However, it seems unlikely that the artist entrusted a student with the task of realizing part of a cycle commissioned by his most illustrious client; the last restorations have also highlighted the homogeneous pictorial quality of the four canvases.
The identity of the saints is clear in consideration of the attributes of the figures, which recur not by chance also in other series of equal subject, such as the one made by Pietro Paolo Rubens today at the Prado: Saint Paul holds his hand on the handle of the sword, that symbolizes his beheading; Saint Thomas holds a spear instrument of his martyrdom; Saint Simon the book and Saint Matthew the halberd, the weapon with which he was martyred.The figures are monumental and stand out for the full-bodied relief and for the accentuated torsional movement of the bodies: Procaccini had worked as a sculptor between 1591 and 1599 at the Duomo yard in Milan and this activity has undoubtedly influenced his style of painting. The marked chiaroscuro of the paintings is instead common to the formal choices of the other Lombards active at the beginning of the seventeenth century for the religious commission of the counter-reformed church: in particular Giovan Battista Crespi the "Cerano" and Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli the "Morazzone".
The four paintings became part of the collection of Palazzo Rosso in about 1730, thanks to the purchase of Gio. Francesco II Brignole - Sale.

The four paintings kept in Palazzo Rosso are part of a scattered series of Twelve Apostles - originally completed by images of Christ and the Virgin for a total of fourteen paintings - commissioned by the noble Gio. Carlo Doria to the Bolognese artist, but Milanese by adoption, Procaccini; a letter from the painter Simon Vouet to the client testifies the execution in the autumn of 1621.
A second letter written by Horace Fregoso to the Doria, however, in December of the same year, documented a serious infirmity of Procaccini, for which the critics had assumed that only Saint Thomas was at the hands of the master and that the other paintings, which appeared inferior in quality, had been made by some help. However, it seems unlikely that the artist entrusted a student with the task of realizing part of a cycle commissioned by his most illustrious client; the last restorations have also highlighted the homogeneous pictorial quality of the four canvases.
The identity of the saints is clear in consideration of the attributes of the figures, which recur not by chance also in other series of equal subject, such as the one made by Pietro Paolo Rubens today at the Prado: Saint Paul holds his hand on the handle of the sword, that symbolizes his beheading; Saint Thomas holds a spear instrument of his martyrdom; Saint Simon the book and Saint Matthew the halberd, the weapon with which he was martyred.
The figures are monumental and stand out for the full-bodied relief and for the accentuated torsional movement of the bodies: Procaccini had worked as a sculptor between 1591 and 1599 at the Duomo yard in Milan and this activity has undoubtedly influenced his style of painting. The marked chiaroscuro of the paintings is instead common to the formal choices of the other Lombards active at the beginning of the seventeenth century for the religious commission of the counter-reformed church: in particular Giovan Battista Crespi the "Cerano" and Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli the "Morazzone".
The four paintings became part of the collection of Palazzo Rosso in about 1730, thanks to the purchase of Gio. Francesco II Brignole - Sale.

The four paintings of the apostles (St Matthew, St Paul, St Simon, St Thomas) were part of a lost series of the twelve apostles, originally completed with images of Christ and the Virgin Mary for a total of fourteen canvases, painted for Gio. Carlo Doria - according to a letter from Simon Vouet - around the end of 1621. However, a second letter written by Orazio Fregoso to Doria in December of the same year documents Procaccini's serious illness, which is why critics had assumed that only St Thomas was painted by the master and that the other paintings, which appeared to be of inferior quality, had been painted by an assistant. However, it seems unlikely that the artist would have entrusted a pupil with the task of completing part of a cycle commissioned by his most illustrious client; moreover, recent restoration work has highlighted the consistent pictorial quality of the four canvases. After 1645, it was inherited by the descendants of Gio. Luca Doria, Gio. Carlo's younger brother, who in 1678 sold one to Ottavio Centurione and five to Cristoforo Centurione Oltremarini. In turn, the latter's son, Pietro Francesco, sold four of the five canvases to Gio. Francesco II Brignole-Sale in 1730, who placed them in Palazzo Rosso. The identity of the saints is clear from the attributes of the figures, which also appear in other series on the same subject, such as the one created by Peter Paul Rubens, now in the Prado: Saint Paul has his hand resting on the hilt of his sword, symbolising his beheading; Saint Thomas holds a spear, the instrument of his martyrdom; Saint Simon holds a book and Saint Matthew a halberd, the weapon with which he was martyred. The figures are monumental and imposing due to their substantial relief and the accentuated twisting movement of their bodies: Procaccini had worked as a sculptor between 1591 and 1599 at the construction site of Milan Cathedral, and this activity undoubtedly influenced his painting style. The marked chiaroscuro of the paintings is common to the formal choices of other Lombard artists active in the early 17th century for religious commissions from the Counter-Reformation Church, in particular Giovan Battista Crespi il “Cerano” and Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli il “Morazzone”. The painting depicts a portrait of Saint Matthew the Apostle holding a halberd.

The artist's account book shows that a deposit of 20 scudi was paid for this painting on 22 November 1640, while the balance of 55 scudi was recorded on 7 December 1641; in both cases, the name of the client is specified: the lawyer Marcantonio Eugeni, who, two years later, paid Guercino a similar amount for a Death of Seneca, which has been lost but was clearly conceived as a companion piece to the work in question. The work was then identified as the “painting on canvas depicting Cato Utecenze with a gilded frame” recorded in the post-mortem inventory of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pallotta in 1668 (Boccardo in Caldarola 2009, p. 120). It was therefore from the cardinal's niece and heir that the painting was purchased by Giovanni Francesco I Brignole-Sale, certainly before 1684, the year in which it appears in the inventory of the latter's assets (Tagliaferro 1995, p. 299). There are two known drawings, both in pen and ink, related to this subject: one in the Royal Library at Windsor (inv. No. 2816) where, compared to the painting, Cato's right hand is raised so as to thrust the sword into his side; the other, preserved at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dijon (inv. No. D. G. 565), presents, in analogy with the canvas in Palazzo Rosso, a curtain on the left and the right arm lowered (Boccardo in Genova 1992, p. 70). The painting depicts Cato wearing a red cloak and stabbing himself in the stomach.

The available documentation provides rather contradictory information regarding the genesis of this painting. On the one hand, the Bolognese historian Carlo Cesare Malvasia (1678) states that it was commissioned from Guercino in 1634 by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pallotta as a gift to Francesco I d'Este, then Duke of Modena, at the end of his term in Ferrara, but that he did not deliver it and kept it for himself. On the other hand, the artist's account book records the payment received four years later from Antonio Fabri for “the retouching of the pair of Christ driving the merchants from the temple”. did not deliver it and kept it for himself. On the other hand, the artist's account book records a payment received four years later from Antonio Fabri for “the retouching of the pair of Christ driving the merchants from the Temple” to be donated to Pallotta himself, who, at that point, would have owned two almost identical paintings. Beyond the fact that Malvasia may have been mistaken and that the first canvas from 1634 may have actually reached the Duke of Modena (but no similar work appears in the Este inventories), there is little doubt about the direct connection between the subject of the painting and the figure of the cardinal: in fact, the bent rope wielded by Christ in the act of driving out the merchants closely resembles the Pallotta family's heraldic weapon, characterised by a “scourge in the act of striking”. The comparison is so apt that in the cardinal's papers, the work - perhaps only added to his possessions in 1638, thanks to the “retouching” paid for by Fabri? - was curiously recorded under the heading “Flagellum de funiculis”, with a quotation from the Gospel of John (2:15). Equally certain is that the work now preserved in the Strada Nuova Museums was purchased by Gio. Francesco I Brignole-Sale by 1684, from a select group of works that once belonged to Cardinal Pallotta and subsequently, through the marriage of his daughter, passed to her husband, the Bolognese count Gio. Gaspare Grassi. Far from being a mere copy “tout court”, the painting in question therefore seems to be a workshop reworking - the names of Bartolomeo Gennari and Matteo Loves have been mentioned - with the intervention of the master, perhaps limited - also judging by the amount paid by Fabri for the “retouching” - to the execution of the main heads and a few other significant elements. The 2009 restoration also revealed the presence of several layers of paint, some of which, however, can be traced back to the heavy restoration work carried out in the mid-19th century by Giuseppe Isola and documented. (Boccardo 2009, pp. 116-117) According to Turner (2017, pp. 496-497), this may be a classic workshop “sketch”, created in preparation for the main painting, for which the retouching requested by Fabri was intended to fill in the parts that had been left only sketched. The painting depicts Jesus driving the merchants out of the temple.

The painting was intended to crown the altarpiece depicting the ‘Clothing of Saint William of Aquitaine’, painted by Guercino in 1620 for Cristoforo Locatelli. According to Malvasia's testimony, the client ‘kept it for himself’, placing a copy in its place. The presence of Guercino's canvas in the Ligurian capital is attested as early as the first half of the 18th century, while it is mentioned for the first time in Palazzo Rosso in the handwritten inventory of 1748. The painting was one of the few not to be donated, together with the palace, to the municipality of Genoa in 1874, as the Duchess of Galliera took it with her to decorate her Parisian residence. It was only in 1889 that it became part of the artistic heritage of the Palazzo Bianco gallery, through the bequest she made that year to the civic collections.