Palazzo Bianco
Palazzo Bianco (English: White Palace) is one of the main buildings of the center of Genoa, Italy. 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
History
Constructed between 1530 and 1540 by Luca Grimaldi, a member of the House of Grimaldi, 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.
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,
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, and from the inward transfer of sculpture and fresco from other museums and galleries.
The gallery offers a panorama of
The activity of the Genoese painters of the 17th and 18th centuries is documented from the works of
Other important paintings in the collection
- Caravaggio : Ecce Homo
- Hans Memling : Christ Blessing (Ecce Homo)
- the Cervara)