Museums in Genoa
Gallery of Palazzo Bianco
The Palazzo Bianco houses an important collection of European, Italian, and Genoese paintings from the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Alongside priceless Italian masterpieces and paintings (e.g., Caravaggio and Veronese), one may admire works by such Flemish artists as Hans Memling, Gerard David, Jean Provost, Rubens, and Van Dyck; Dutch masters, such as Steen; French artists such as Vouet and Lancret; as well as Spanish masters such as Zurbaràn and Murillo. Worthy of note is a vast collection of Genoese paintings completed between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, including works by Magnasco, Cambiaso, Strozzi, and Piola.
Gallery of Palazzo Rosso
Located in Genoa’s aristocratic street, the palazzo, which has now become a museum, was one of the city’s most important and oldest patrician residences. Within a luxurious context boasting frescoes by major Ligurian artists from the seventeenth century and fine décor, the museum currently houses a vast collection of paintings, including paintings collected during the course of over two centuries by the Brignole-Sale family. Visitors may admire works by Veronese, Perin del Vaga, Guercino, Strozzi, Grechetto, Carbone, Van Dyck, Dürer and many more.
Palazzo Tursi
Constructed during the Century of the Genoese, in addition to housing the mayor’s staterooms, it also contains the expansion of the Palazzo Bianco Gallery. Its monumental halls hold renowned pieces such as the Guarneri del Gesù, a violin that belonged to Paganini, as well as a remarkable exhibit of decorative art works and a collection of coins, weights and official measurements from the antique Republic of Genoa.
Sant’Agostino Museum
The museum is housed within the complex of the Convent of Saint Augustine, dating back to the Middle Ages (thirteenth century). It boasts sculptures, detached Italian and Ligurian frescoes, and stone artifacts from the tenth to the eighteenth centuries. The museum also includes works by F.M. Schiaffino, V. Castello, Domenico Piola, Luca Cambiaso, and F. Parodi. The masterpieces on view by Giovanni Pisano, Pierre Puget and Antonio Canova are also particularly noteworthy. Moreover, the museum also houses a Topographic Collection comprising documents from various eras and of historic and documentary import.
Treasure Museum of the San Lorenzo Cathedral
Within the evocative underground environment of the San Lorenzo Cathedral, gold and religious art masterpieces from the eleventh through the nineteenth centuries are on view, along with antique silverware of great artistic value, pertaining to the cathedral’s worship and Genoa’s history. The museum’s most significant works include the Sacro Catino, originally thought to be a reliquary from the Last Supper, but discovered to have been a work of the eleventh century; a Byzantine cross from the thirteenth century, the Croce degli Zaccaria; the Arca delle Ceneri by San Giovanni Battista; and other objects tied to the worship of Saint John the Baptist.
Modern Art Gallery
Originating from Prince Odone of Savoy’s collection and subsequent donations and purchases, the gallery is housed in the seventeenth-century Villa Saluzzo in Nervi, where visitors may admire over 2,500 works of art, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, and etchings dating back from the early nineteenth century to the present. Among the works by numerous artists on view, are works by Ernesto Rayper, Tammar Luxoro, Alfredo D’Andrade, Rubaldo Merello, Renato Guttuso, and Raimondo Sirotti.
Museo Raccolte Frugone – Frugone Collection
Since 1993, the museum is located within the eighteenth-century Villa Grimaldi Fassio, which was bought by the Commune of Genoa in 1979 and is nestled within Nervi’s luxuriant park and splendid rose garden. Both of these exceptional collections include paintings, sculptures, and drawings by Italian and international artists who were active during the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The museum includes works by Bistolfi, Fattori, Fontanesi, Mancini, Messina, Segantini, Signorini, Boldini, Rubino, Milesi, Tito, Michetti, and Sorolla y Bastida.
Giannettino Luxoro Museum
This elegant villa in Nervi, built in 1903 in the Genoese seventeenth- and eighteenth- century styles as a residence for the Luxoro family, has been the site of a museum housing the family’s collections since 1951. The museum’s holdings comprise paintings, furnishings, decorations, ceramics, silverware, mirrors, intagliated frames, antique cloths, a series of valuable objects produced mainly in Liguria during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, an exceptional collection of antique clocks and pendulums, and an important collection of Nativity Scene statuettes from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The rich collection of canvasses and drawings that comprise the collection of paintings, boasts such names as Alessandro Magnasco, Antonio Francesco Peruzzini and Carlo Tavella, along with a praiseworthy series of eighteenth-century portraits by the Genoese School.
Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art
Situated within the nineteenth-century Villa Croce and surrounded by a public park, the museum boasts a collection of artistic treasures that includes over 3000 abstract Italian and international abstract works of art from 1939-1980; Genoese and Ligurian art from the second half of the twentieth century; Italian graphics from the second half of the twentieth century; and Maria Cemuschi Ghiringhelli’s important collection of abstract art, with its over two-hundred works by some of the most important Italian artists. The library and archives are also open to the public.
DVJ Damasco Velluto Jeans
A Centre dedicated to the study and presentation of exceptional textile collections, which was created out of a partnership between the Municipality and the Superintendency for Artistic Heritage. The public will be shown, on rotation, lace, antique clothing, damasks, velvets and patterned fabrics of the highest artistic level that are dateable between XVI and XIX century.
National Gallery of Palazzo Spinola
Within the evocative setting of a sixteenth-century palazzo, which has retained the atmosphere of a residence of the period, the tour of Liguria’s National Gallery museums begins: the prestigious collection of paintings boasts works by major Genoese, Flemish, and European artists, along with an important collection of ceramics. The paintings on exhibit include works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Van Cleeve, Antonello da Messina, Strozzi, Procaccini, Giovanni Pisano, Grechetto, Valerio Castello, Lorenzo De Ferrari, Tavarone, and many others.
Museum of Palazzo Reale
This sumptuous building was built during the 1600s and was the noble dwelling of such patrician families as the Balbi, Durazzo, and Savoia families. The décor, works of art and commonplace objects from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, remain intact. Its twenty-three rooms boast a rich collection of paintings that includes works by Van Dyck, Veronese, Tintoretto, Guercino, Strozzi and some of the most important painters of the Genoese School (Piola, Grechetto, and Schiaffino), along with sculptures by Filippo Parodi and works by several other artists. The Genoese furniture collection from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is particularly noteworthy.
Fine Arts Museum of Ligurian Academy (ALBA)
Within the halls of this prestigious building, erected at Andrea Doria’s behest during the sixteenth century, lie frescoes, paintings and sculptures by important Ligurian, Italian and foreign artists, along with a valuable series of tapestries. The museum includes works by Perin del Vaga, Piola, Tavarone, Cambiaso, Titian, and Castello. The Italian garden boasts a monumental marble fountain of Neptune by the Carlone brothers.
Palazzo del Principe Museum
Built at the behest of Andrea Doria in the sixteenth century, this prestigious building houses frescoes, paintings, and sculptures by important Ligurian artists, both Italian and foreign, besides a valuable series of tapestries. The museum includes works by such artists as Perin del Vaga, Piola, Tavarone, Cambiaso, Tiziano and Castello. A monumental marble fountain of Neptune by the Carlone brothers may be found in the building’s Italian-style garden.
Diocesan Museum
The museum is situated in the Chiostro dei Canonici, the Church of San Lorenzo’s cloister, built in the seventh century as a residence for the cathedral’s canons and recently returned to its ancient splendor thanks to years of restoration work. The museum complex houses numerous works of art that constitute a significant example of Genoese religious art works. Among the works on view, the monumental tomb of the Fieschi family is especially noteworthy, along with the large altarpieces by Gregorio De Ferrari, the gold-backdrop paintings by Barnaba da Modena, and canvasses by Luca Cambiaso, Perin del Vaga, Francesco Sacchi, Teramo Piaggio, and Andrea Semino. Also worthy of note, are Ligurian paintings from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, various archeological artifacts, stone works, precious reliquaries, silverware, and fine needlework.
Wolfsoniana
Focused mainly on decorative art and propaganda during the period 1880-1945, the Wolfsoniana, starting from the taste for the exotic that spread in Italy at the end of the 1800’s, winds through the main linguistic and expressive currents during the first half of the XX century, from Art Noveau to Art Déco, from twentieth century style to Rationalism. The extraordinary variety of materials (paintings, sculptures, furnishings, decorative arts, objects of daily use and industrial design) conserved inside the just inaugurated museum in Nervi contributes to the detailed documentation of the cultural complexity of the era.
Emanuele Luzzati Museum
Inaugurated in 2001, the museum is situated in Genoa’s Old Harbor, within the evocative setting of Porta Siberia. It boasts several works and set designs by Emanuele Luzzati, including mezzari (traditional Ligurian shawls), tapestries, paintings and drawings. The museum complex has been designed with children and youths in mind and, besides a series of rooms that have been equipped to serve as educational and animation areas, the museum also houses a multimedia center, library, and bookshop. It also occasionally hosts exhibits of set designs, costumes, models, and sketches.
Printing Archive and Museum
Inaugurated in 2003, the Printing Archive and Museum has an experimental workshop on all types of printing, including natural, technical and artificial and historical forms. Fully functioning ancient presses tell the story of Gutenberg and hand-operated and pedal-operated machines are on display, as well as movable type from different eras and of various styles, plus documents and impressions: from the one of an eighty-million year old micro-organism to the image of the laboratory shroud under glass.
Galata Sea Museum
The maritime evolution of the port and the city is illustrated in a space larger than 6000 sq.m. In the building, which is the oldest survivor among those that made up the antique Arsenale delle Galee (Arsenal of Galleys), a Genoese galley from the XVII century has been reconstructed that is 40 metres long and 9 metres high at the stern, the result of three years of historical research. The approach is not exclusively scientific, but also multimedial and interactive
Naval Museum
Within the Renaissance villa that had belonged to Giovanni Andrea Doria are exhibited Genoese maritime collections dating from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. Genoa’s maritime history may be retraced through twelve frescoed halls, beginning with the city’s origins as a harbor in the High Middle Ages, through the development of its trade with the peoples of the Mediterranean Basin and the rise of colonies in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Visitors may admire submarine archeological artifacts (e.g., bombards, serpentines, and artillery); as well as documents, armors, paintings, drawings, navigation instruments, valuable pilot books, and models of ancient ships. Part of the exhibits is devoted to various types of vessels and to the development of navigation instruments.