Baroque Painting in Genoa

Genoa was a fabulously wealthy cosmopolitan municipality in the 17th century, with a rich and diverse artistic tradition. Nourished by a range of commercial links with other European cities, its rulers and citizens built sumptuous palaces and churches on the strength of the wealth generated by the Genoese bankers who came to dominate international finance. From about 1600 to the early-18th century the large patrician class, composed of wealthy and educated patrons, vied with one another to commission the most beautiful and lavish altarpieces, paintings and sculpture. This video presents an investigation of Baroque painting from Genoa. It features the work of both native-born artists such as Bernado Strozzi and Valerio Castello, and those influential outside painters, including Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck, who lived and worked in the city.