Page 70 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italian Riviera

68  GENO A AREA B Y AREA

One of the sumptuous rooms in Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria
p Palazzo Spinola family (1614–24), while the other a Santa Maria
di Pellicceria decorates the Galleria degli delle Vigne
Specchi (hall of mirrors) and
Piazza Pellicceria 1. Map 5 B2. Tel 010 salons, the work of Lorenzo De Vicolo del Campanile delle Vigne 5.
270 53 00. Open 8:30am–7:30pm Ferrari for the Spinola family Map 5 C3. Tel 010 247 47 61.
Tue–Sat, 1:30–7:30pm Sun & public (1730–37). The Spinola donation Open 8am–7pm Mon–Sat (from 9am
hols. Closed 1 Jan, 1 May, 25 Dec. includes works by Guido Reni, Sun). 7 ∑ basilicadellevigne.it
& combined ticket for Palazzo
Spinola & Palazzo Reale. 8 by appt. van Dyck and Giovanni Bene-
7 up to the 3rd floor. ^ without detto Castigliona (il Grechetto). The area now occupied by the
permission. = ∑ palazzospinola. The Galleria Nazionale della Piazza delle Vigne was planted
beniculturali.it Liguria, on the third floor, is with vines (vigne) in or around
reserved for works which were the year 1000, but was later
With all the elegance and not part of the Spinola donation. engulfed by the expanding city.
fascination of an old aristocratic These include fine works such The church of Santa Maria was
mansion house, Palazzo Spinola as Antonello da Messina’s Ecce founded in the same era,
is richly frescoed and has Homo (c.1474), an Equestrian though the only Romanesque
sumptuous furnishings and Portrait of Gio Carlo Doria (1606) element to have survived is the
paintings. Built in the 16th by Rubens, and Justice, sculpted bell tower. The church was
century by the Grimaldi family, by Giovanni Pisano for the otherwise completely rebuilt in
the palazzo passed to the funerary monument of Baroque style in around 1640,
Spinola family in the 18th Margaret of Brabant (see p61). after the area around the apse
century, and they eventually had already been recon structed
donated it to the state in 1958. in the 16th century at the
The first two floors house the request of the local Grillo family.
Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Further changes have been
Spinola, in a manner that is made since. The façade (1842)
sensitive both to the building is the work of Ippolito Cremona.
and to the art collection. The The interior, with a nave
rooms have been restored to and two aisles divided by broad
their original style, with paintings arcades, is bathed in sumptuous
arranged as if this were still a gilding, stucco and fresco deco-
private home. ration, dating from different
Two important fresco cycles periods. The presbytery was
illustrate the two main phases frescoed in 1612 by Lazzaro
in the history of the palazzo: one, Tavarone, with a Glory of Mary,
by Lazzaro Tavarone, illustrates and the aisles and the octagonal
in two rooms Exploits and Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina, Palazzo cupola were painted by various
Personalities in the Grimaldi Spinola di Pellicceria artists from the 18th century to
For hotels and restaurants in this area see p180 and pp188–9

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