In the 17th century, Genoa completed its transformation from a faded maritime power of old, feuding families into the banking center of Europe.  Accumulating enormous wealth, the leading Genoese turned to cultural investment. Genoese artists and their patrons created an art of extraordinary material sumptuousness, visual splendor, and exuberant feeling—a singularly rich and beautiful expression of baroque style.

The catalog and exhibition at the National Gallery of Art—the first of this scope and scale on Genoese baroque art in the United States—bring together some 140 paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, drawings, and prints. A Superb Baroque features works by the city’s few well-known painters such as Bernardo Strozzi, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, and Alessandro Magnasco. Key works by artists drawn to Genoa’s flourishing environment—Rubens, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, Orazio Gentileschi, Van Dyck, and Francesco Solimena—are also presented. Sculptures provide a counterpoint to the paintings, including several full-size statues by the principal figures—Pierre Puget, Filippo Parodi, Anton Maria Maragliano—as well as terracotta sketches and smaller-scale repetitions of monumental groups. The decorative arts are represented by spectacular ceremonial silver objects, while many of the choice drawings and prints are by the same artists who executed the paintings and objects shown.