Palazzo Bianco ( en, White Palace) is one of the main buildings of the center of

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is situated at 11, via Garibaldi (known at one time as ''Strada Nuova'', and before that, ''Via Aurea''). It contains the Gallery of the White Palace, one of the larger city

art galleries An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

, and together with those of its neighbors

Palazzo Rosso The Palazzo Brignole Sale or Palazzo Rosso is a house museum located in Via Garibaldi, in the historical center of Genoa, in Northwestern Italy. The palace is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Pa ...

and

Palazzo Doria Tursi The palazzo Doria-Tursi or palazzo Niccolò Grimaldi is a building on Via Giuseppe Garibaldi in the historic town centre of Genoa. With Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Bianco it houses the Strada Nuova Museums and on 13 July 2006 all three palaces and ...

, it forms part of the Strada Nuova Museums, a cluster of museums at that end of the street.

History

Constructed between 1530 and 1540 by Luca Grimaldi, a member of the

House of Grimaldi The House of Grimaldi ( , also , , ) is the current reigning house of the Principality of Monaco. The house was founded in 1160 by Grimaldo Canella in Genoa and became the ruling house of Monaco when Francesco Grimaldi captured Monaco in 1297 ...

, one of the most important Genoese families, in 1658 the palace passed into the possession of the De Franchi Toso family, and in 1711 it was given by its inheritor Federico de Franchi Toso, to Maria Durazzo Brignole-Sale, his main

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...

. The new owners, between 1714 and 1716, carried out a decisive restoration of the building, adapting it to the tastes of the age. It subsequently earned the name ''White'' for the clear color of its exterior decoration. In 1899, Maria Brignole Sale, the

Duchess Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked ...

Galliera Galliera ( Northern Bolognese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about north of Bologna. Galliera borders the following municipalities: Malalbergo, Pieve di Cento, ...

and the last member of the family, divested the palace to become municipal property and thus destined it to become a public gallery.

The gallery

"For the formation of a public gallery": with these words, in her testament of 1884, the Duchess dedicated the Gallery of the Palace as a public space, with the intention to increase its collection yet further. This constituted the first nucleus of the civic museum. After 1887, the gallery was enriched by the purchase of numerous private collections. It has since benefited from a transformation due to reordering of the collections and the post-war reconstruction of the palace, curated by Orlando Grosso, Caterina Marcenaro and the architect

Franco Albini Franco Albini (17 October 1905 – 1 November 1977) was an Italian Neo-Rationalist architect, designer and university instructor in design. A native of Robbiate, near Milan, Albini obtained his degree in architecture at Politecnico di Milano U ...

, and from the inward transfer of

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

from other museums and galleries. The gallery offers a panorama of

European painting The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from classical antiquity, antiquity until the present time. Until the mid-19th century it was primarily concerned with Representational art, representational ...

from the 12th century to the 17th century, with a large prevalence of Genoese, Flemish, French and Spanish painters. Of the 13th and 16th century, works are shown by authors such as

Barnaba da Modena Barnaba da Modena (c. 1328-c.1386) was a mid-14th-century Italian painter who painted in the style of Byzantine art.Raimond Van Marle, ''The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting'', Springer Science & Business Media, 2012, p. 382-383 He ...

Ludovico Brea Ludovico (or Louis) Brea (c. 1450 – c. 1523) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, active mainly in and near Genoa. Brea was born into a family of coopers in Nice, and later moving to Liguria, he painted numerous altarpieces that display ...

and

Luca Cambiaso Luca Cambiaso (also known as Luca Cambiasi and Luca Cangiagio (being ''Cangiaxo'' the surname in Ligurian); 18 November 1527 – 6 September 1585) was an Italian painter and draughtsman and the leading artist in Genoa in the 16th century. He i ...

(including ''La Madonna della candela''). 16th-century paintings include work by

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , also , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana'' (1563) and ''The ...

from the Venetian school, and

Filippino Lippi Filippino Lippi (April 1457 – 18 April 1504) was an Italian painter working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance. Biography Filippino Lippi was born in Prato, Tusc ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. Dutch and Flemish paintings from the 16th to 18th century feature

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

(including ''Venus and Mars'') and

Van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...

(including ''Vertummo and Pomona''). Notable Spanish artists of the 17th century included are Zurbarán, Murillo and Ribera. The activity of the Genoese painters of the 17th and 18th centuries is documented from the works of

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (baptized 23 March 16095 May 1664) was an Italian Baroque painter, printmaker and draftsman, of the Genoese school. He is best known now for his etchings, and as the inventor of the printmaking technique of monoty ...

Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo (1584 – August 18, 1638) was an Italian painter active mainly in Genoa. Life Ansaldo was born in Voltri, now part of the ''comune'' of Genoa, the son of a merchant. He trained under Orazio Cambiasi and possibly collabo ...

Bernardo Strozzi Bernardo Strozzi, named il Cappuccino and il Prete Genovese (c. 1581 – 2 August 1644) was an Italian Baroque painter and engraver. A canvas and fresco artist, his wide subject range included history, allegorical, genre and portrait paintin ...

Valerio Castello Valerio Castello (1624October 1659) born in Genoa, was an Italian painter of the Baroque period and one of the pre-eminent Ligurian painters of his time. His art drew inspiration from a wide range of sources. He painted on canvas and fresco.Ma ...

Domenico Piola Domenico Piola (1627 – 8 April 1703) was a Genoese painter of the Baroque period. He was the leading artist in Genoa in the second half of the 17th century, working on ceiling frescoes for many Genoese churches and palaces and canvas paintin ...

Paolo Girolamo Piola Paolo Gerolamo Piola (1666–1724) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period active mainly in Genoa. His father was the prominent Genoese painter Domenico Piola. Paolo Gerolamo was very active painting sacred subjects and frescoes. He was se ...

, Gregorio De Ferrari and

Alessandro Magnasco Alessandro Magnasco (February 4, 1667 – March 12, 1749), also known as il Lissandrino, was an Italian late-Baroque painter active mostly in Milan and Genoa. He is best known for stylized, fantastic, often phantasmagoric genre or landscape sce ...

Other important paintings in the collection

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

: '' Ecce Homo'' *

Hans Memling Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a painter active in Flanders, who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He ...

: ''Christ Blessing (Ecce Homo)'' *

Gerard David Gerard David (c. 1460 – 13 August 1523) was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color. Only a bare outline of his life survives, although some facts are known. He may have been the Meester ...

: '' Polittico della Cervara'' (

Polyptych A polyptych ( ; Greek: ''poly-'' "many" and ''ptychē'' "fold") is a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a "triptych" is a three-part work; a tetrapty ...

the Cervara Cervara Abbey ( it, Abbazia della Cervara or ''Abbazia di San Gerolamo al Monte di Portofino'') is a former abbey in Santa Margherita Ligure, Liguria region, northern Italy. It is on the coastal road to Portofino. The abbey complex is a designa ...

)

External links

Museo Palazzo Bianco website
{{authority control Houses completed in 1540 Art museums established in 1884

Bianco Bianco is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Reggio Calabria, in southern Italy. It is a seaside town and a popular tourist resort. The main attractions are the remainings of an old abbey and the ruins of a Roman house. See also *Calabri ...

Palazzi dei Rolli Art museums and galleries in Genoa House of Brignole 1884 establishments in Italy it:Federico De Franchi Toso (1642-1734)