The exhibition “Grottoes and Gardens in the time of Rubens” inaugurated last October 14 at the Palazzo della Meridiana in Genoa has been extended until 5 February. Two more weeks, therefore, to be able to see one of the most original and evocative exhibitions within the rich Genoese offer linked to the world of Rubens.

The Antwerp painter, courted by Genoese families who asked for more and more portraits to add to their collections, lent himself to satisfying the requests of the nobility who in turn welcomed a Flemish art genius.

A visible result in some of his masterpieces, but also in the itinerary conceived in the five rooms of the exhibition organized by the curator, LauroMagnani, professor and one of the leading Italian experts in the history of modern art, attentive in grasping highly suggestive aspects that restore the magic and mysteries of the caves housed in Genoese villas. An exhibition, therefore, designed not only to broaden knowledge of the figure of Rubens, but also to make the visitor part of these emotions.

Rubens dedicates an entire volume to the villas of Genoa and in this surprising exhibition you can savor the atmosphere of the gardens, moving between artificial grottoes and water features, and letting yourself be conquered by the decorations made with mosaics and majolica. The visitor is then called to return to the past, leveraging his own imagination, and thus to have the impression of actually being inside the villas of seventeenth-century Genoa.

Location: Palazzo della Meridiana

Hours: Wednesday to Sunday from 11 to 18.

Admission: 10 euros (full), 8 euros (reduced), 4 euros (schools and children).

Contacts: tel. 010 2541996 – email: [email protected]

Pietro Paolo Rubens in Genoa

Born into a Protestant family, Rubens converted to Catholicism while studying the humanities in Antwerp. In 1600 he went to Venice and had the opportunity to study great artists such as Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.

Entering the service of Vincenzo I Gonzaga Duke of Mantua, he was sent to Rome and in 1604, on his return from a trip to Spain, Rubens stayed in Genoa for the first time. On this occasion he met Ambrogio Spinola, who in 1606 commissioned the painter to paint a portrait of his wife, Brigida Spinola Doria.

During his stay in 1607 in the retinue of the Duke of Mantua, Rubens was impressed by the palaces of Genoa and decided to make them known in Flanders. The book he created for this purpose, The Palaces of Genoa, was published in Antwerp in 1622.