Description
The Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola is a noble palace in Genoa that has stayed just as it was when people lived in it: frescoes, furniture, mirrors and paintings in their places, in the heart of the alleys, in Piazza di Pellicceria, plus a gallery of masterpieces.
In 1958 the marquesses Paolo and Franco Spinola gave it to the State with everything it contained, on one condition: that it keep the appearance of a historic residence. So the visit takes you through more than three centuries of life in Genoa's great families.
The first piano nobile has remained seventeenth-century. On the ceiling of the main hall Lazzaro Tavarone painted in 1614 the Siege of Lisbon, an exploit of the founder, Francesco Grimaldi; the drawing rooms have their original furniture, some pieces with bearded heads carved on the corners, and van Dyck's portrait of Ansaldo Pallavicino.
The second floor is a Rococo triumph, commissioned in 1734 by Maddalena Doria. The route culminates in the Gallery of Mirrors, all gilded stucco around Bacchus, Venus and Cupid, in the fashion of Versailles.
In one drawing room stands a huge mirror bought in Paris, which reached Genoa after an adventurous journey: overland to Cádiz, then by sea. On the walls hang paintings by Guido Reni, Luca Giordano, Bernardo Strozzi and Valerio Castello.
On the mezzanine survives the historic kitchen, as it was in the early nineteenth century: a large wheel worked the dumbwaiter that carried dishes up to the dining room on the floor above.
On the third floor, rebuilt after the wartime bombs, the most precious pieces are on display, including Antonello da Messina's Ecce Homo. The museum also owns Rubens's equestrian portrait of Giovanni Carlo Doria. A spiral staircase leads up to the roof terrace, with views over the old town.
In its entire history the palace has been sold only once: Tommaso Grimaldi ceded it to his brother-in-law Ansaldo Pallavicino to pay off a large debt. After that it always passed by inheritance, from the Pallavicino to the Doria and on to the Spinola.
In the dining room hangs the portrait of Doge Agostino Pallavicino, the first to wear a crown and carry a sceptre. He obtained them by proclaiming the Virgin Mary Queen of Genoa in 1637, so that the Republic would no longer rank one step below the kings of Europe.
In 1958 the marquesses Paolo and Franco Spinola gave it to the State with everything it contained, on one condition: that it keep the appearance of a historic residence. So the visit takes you through more than three centuries of life in Genoa's great families.
The first piano nobile has remained seventeenth-century. On the ceiling of the main hall Lazzaro Tavarone painted in 1614 the Siege of Lisbon, an exploit of the founder, Francesco Grimaldi; the drawing rooms have their original furniture, some pieces with bearded heads carved on the corners, and van Dyck's portrait of Ansaldo Pallavicino.
The second floor is a Rococo triumph, commissioned in 1734 by Maddalena Doria. The route culminates in the Gallery of Mirrors, all gilded stucco around Bacchus, Venus and Cupid, in the fashion of Versailles.
In one drawing room stands a huge mirror bought in Paris, which reached Genoa after an adventurous journey: overland to Cádiz, then by sea. On the walls hang paintings by Guido Reni, Luca Giordano, Bernardo Strozzi and Valerio Castello.
On the mezzanine survives the historic kitchen, as it was in the early nineteenth century: a large wheel worked the dumbwaiter that carried dishes up to the dining room on the floor above.
On the third floor, rebuilt after the wartime bombs, the most precious pieces are on display, including Antonello da Messina's Ecce Homo. The museum also owns Rubens's equestrian portrait of Giovanni Carlo Doria. A spiral staircase leads up to the roof terrace, with views over the old town.
In its entire history the palace has been sold only once: Tommaso Grimaldi ceded it to his brother-in-law Ansaldo Pallavicino to pay off a large debt. After that it always passed by inheritance, from the Pallavicino to the Doria and on to the Spinola.
In the dining room hangs the portrait of Doge Agostino Pallavicino, the first to wear a crown and carry a sceptre. He obtained them by proclaiming the Virgin Mary Queen of Genoa in 1637, so that the Republic would no longer rank one step below the kings of Europe.