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In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Past Exhibition

September 27, 2021 – January 7, 2022
East Building, Ground Floor, Study Center

Weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Known as La Superba, Genoa was one of Italy’s most prosperous maritime powers in the Mediterranean from the late Middle Ages until the eighteenth century. Genoese naval prowess, critical to the outcome of the Crusades, gave rise to a thriving merchant class and led to the establishment of trading colonies throughout the region. By the sixteenth century, Genoa emerged as one of the foremost banking centers in Europe, and its leading families funded the construction of impressive architectural marvels. Bountiful commissions to decorate these buildings supported a flourishing community of local artists and attracted prominent painters and sculptors from across northern Europe to the Ligurian coast.

Visit the National Gallery of Art Library to see a selection of rare books and works on paper produced in the Republic of Genoa from the end of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century. Drawn from the collections and library of the National Gallery, these works range from images of the grand architecture of Genoa’s palaces and mansions to elaborately illustrated editions of Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme liberata, genealogical works about Genoa’s leading families, and biographies of Genoese artists alongside some of their drawings and etchings. Together, these works offer a glimpse into Genoa’s print culture at the height of the baroque period.

Selected Works

In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Agostino Fransone, Luciano Borzone, Jérôme David, engraving in Nobiltà di Genova (Genoa: Nella stampa di Pietro Giovanni Calenzano e Gio. Maria Farroni, 1636), National Gallery of Art Library, David K. E. Bruce Fund
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Raffaele Soprani, Domenico Piola, Georges Tasinière, Allegory of the Arts, engraved frontispiece in Le vite de pittori, scoltori, et architetti Genovesi (Genoa: Per G. Bottaro e G. B. Tiboldi, 1674), National Gallery of Art, William B. O’Neal Fund, 2015.107.1
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Raffaele Soprani, Domenico Piola, Georges Tasinière, engraved portrait of Bernardo Castello in Le vite de pittori, scoltori, et architetti Genovesi (Genoa: Per G. Bottaro e G. B. Tiboldi, 1674), National Gallery of Art Library, David K. E. Bruce Fund
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Raffaele Soprani, Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, Giovanni Lorenzo Guidotti, engraved portrait of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione in Le vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti Genovesi, volume 1 (Genoa: Nella stamperia Casamara, 1768), National Gallery of Art Library, David K. E. Bruce Fund
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man, etching on laid paper, 1640/1647, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Neil Phillips, 1997.16.1
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, The Genius of Castiglione, etching, before 1648, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Ruth B. Benedict in memory of William S. Benedict, 1981.56.1
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Raffaele Soprani, Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, Giuseppe Sforza Perini, engraved portrait of Domenico Piola in Le vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti Genovesi, volume 2 (Genoa: Nella stamperia Casamara, 1769), National Gallery of Art Library, David K. E. Bruce Fund
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Domenico Piola, Blessed Maria Vittoria Fornari’s Vision of the Trinity, pen and brown ink with brown wash over graphite, with additions in black chalk, on laid paper, c. 1670, National Gallery of Art, Joseph F. McCrindle Collection, 2009.70.192
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Torquato Tasso, Bernardo Castello, Camillo Cungio, engraved frontispiece in La Gerusalemme liberata (Genoa: Appresso Giuseppe Pavoni, 1617), National Gallery of Art Library, David K. E. Bruce Fund
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Massimilano Deza, Domenico Piola, Martial Desbois, engraved frontispiece in Istoria della famiglia Spinola, descritta dalla sua origine fino al secolo XVI (Piacenza: Nella Stampa Ducale di Giovanni Bazachi, 1694), National Gallery of Art Library, David K. E. Bruce Fund
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Bernardo Castello, David Playing the Harp before Saul, pen and black and brown ink with black chalk and brown wash, heightened with white gouache on blue paper squared in black chalk, c. 1602, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2019.126.1
In the Library: Print Culture and the Arts in Genoa

Torquato Tasso, Bernardo Castello, Agostino Carracci, engraving in La Gerusalemme liberata (Genoa: Appresso Girolamo Bartoli, 1590), National Gallery of Art Library, Nell and Robert Weidenhammer Fund

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required

Banner detail: Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man, etching on laid paper, 1640/1647, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Neil Phillips, 1997.16.1