Author: Yvo Reinsalu

Palazzo Nicolosio Lomellino is a distinguished example of Genoese Renaissance architecture, constructed between 1559 and 1565. Commissioned by Nicolosio Lomellino (1510–1570), a notable figure in Genoa’s aristocracy, the palace reflects the taste and influence of its owner.

The architectural design was entrusted to Giovan Battista Castello, known as “Il Bergamasco” (c. 1509–1569), along with Bernardo Cantone. The façade is particularly remarkable for its extensive stucco decorations, a technique quite unusual in Genoa at the time. This ornamental approach, featuring winged female herms, garlands, and classical figures within oval medallions, is thought to have been inspired by Raphael’s work in the Vatican Loggias, introduced to Genoa by his pupil Perin del Vaga (1501–1547). The intricate stucco work is attributed to Marcello Sparzo, who completed these complex designs under Castello’s guidance.

The interior of the entry continues this decorative richness, with an oval atrium adorned with stucco reliefs depicting triumphal scenes and allegorical figures leading into a picturesque courtyard.

One of the Palazzo Lomellino’s most significant features is its garden grotto, designed in the 18th century by Domenico Parodi (1672–1742). This grotto reflects the Renaissance-inspired pursuit of creating spaces that merge natural beauty with artistic expression, embodying the aesthetic and philosophical values of the period.

Chiesa di San Luca (Church of Saint Luke) in Genoa, founded in 1188 by Oberto Spinola, reflects the long and closely interwoven history of the Spinola and Grimaldi families, two of the city’s most powerful patrician dynasties and among its most consistent patrons of the arts. First consecrated in 1191 and again in 1627 after a comprehensive rebuilding, the church underwent a full Baroque transformation between 1626 and 1650, probably under the direction of Bartolomeo Bianco (1590–1657), one of Genoa’s most prominent architects of the seventeenth century. Its interior decoration was entrusted to Domenico Piola (1627–1703), whose mastery of large-scale fresco programmes shaped much of Genoa’s sacred imagery in the period, working alongside his son Paolo Gerolamo Piola (1666–1724) and the quadraturist Antonio Maria Haffner (1654–1732).

The frescoes at San Luca offer an exceptional insight into the mechanics of Genoese Baroque workshop practice. Piola’s bottega was organised with notable efficiency, relying on a rich stock of preparatory drawings, figure studies, and compositional cartoons that allowed favoured themes to be adapted to new settings without loss of refinement. Paolo Gerolamo, whose palette and handling were more delicate than his father’s, frequently undertook subsidiary scenes or figure groups, while Haffner’s illusionistic architectural frameworks expanded the apparent space of the vaults and walls. This collaborative process, balancing speed with consistency, reflects a broader Genoese system that could serve the ambitions of noble families and ecclesiastical patrons while also producing work for the wider art market. In San Luca, this method produced a unified decorative scheme in which sacred narrative, fictive architecture, and energetic figural invention combine to create a persuasive and immersive environment.

The church’s furnishings and altarpieces further articulate the richness of the Genoese Baroque. Filippo Parodi (1630–1702) contributed the marble Immacolata (1649) and the wooden Deposition of Christ (1680), the latter given dramatic surface colour by Domenico Piola. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, known as Il Grechetto (1609–1664), is represented by the Nativity (1645), a work notable for its blend of naturalistic observation and atmospheric chiaroscuro. Giacomo Antonio Fanelli’s wooden crucifix (1609) is carved with refined anatomical precision, while Daniello Solaro’s marble high altar (1649) combines rich ornament with an imposing architectural presence.

In the twentieth century, the church suffered significant damage during the Second World War. The dome, lost in the bombardments, was rebuilt in reinforced concrete in the post-war period, and the frescoes were restored by Luigi Gerolamo Leggero (1892–1978) in the late 1940s. Despite these disruptions, San Luca retains much of its Baroque integrity and continues to offer a vivid record of the city’s artistic culture at its seventeenth-century height, shaped by the collaboration of its most accomplished painters, sculptors, and architects.

Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?

September/ October 2024

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Bibliography

Whitfield, P. (2020) Historic Churches of Genoa: A Brief Guide. Genoa: Peter Whitfield.

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The Basilica of San Siro in Genoa, one of the city’s most important sacred buildings, has origins reaching back to the early medieval period. Founded in the 6th century as the Church of the Twelve Apostles and later rededicated to Saint Siro, a 4th-century bishop of Genoa, it served as the city’s cathedral until the episcopal seat was transferred to San Lorenzo cathedral. Its long history, marked by successive campaigns of rebuilding and embellishment, mirrors the evolution of the Genoese school of architecture and painting from the Renaissance into the high Baroque.

The basilica’s present form took shape after a devastating fire in 1580, which prompted a major rebuilding between 1584 and 1619 under the direction of several architects, including Andrea Vannone, Andrea Riccio, Daniele Casella, and Giacomo Besio. Conceived in the climate of the Counter-Reformation, its design combined the clarity and order of post-Tridentine architecture with an elaborate iconographic programme intended to strengthen Catholic doctrine. The choice of subjects and the arrangement of imagery reflected a distinctly Genoese synthesis of local fresco traditions with the grand decorative cycles seen in Rome and Bologna.

The Carlone family, central to the city’s artistic life in the 17th century, played a dominant role in shaping the basilica’s interior. Giovanni Battista Carlone (1603–1684) painted an extensive series of frescoes in the nave, dome, and choir, uniting scenes from the Old and New Testaments in a monumental narrative sequence. His brother Taddeo Carlone (1543–1615) produced the stucco statues of the Apostles, integrating sculpture into the painted setting with calculated theatricality. Other notable contributions came from Paolo Brozzi and Gregorio De Ferrari (1647–1726), whose frescoes display the refined colouring, dynamic composition, and emotional immediacy characteristic of the Genoese Baroque.

The basilica also houses major works by artists whose reputations extended far beyond Liguria. The high altar, designed and carved by the French sculptor Pierre Puget (1620–1694) during his Genoese period, is one of the finest examples of Baroque altar architecture in Italy, combining architectural precision with sculptural drama. Giacomo Carlone (1533–1592) contributed a Pietà in the apse, notable for its synthesis of late Renaissance serenity with emerging Baroque expressiveness. Orazio Gentileschi’s (1563–1639) Annunciation, markedly different in conception from his Turin version, brings the influence of Roman naturalism and Caravaggesque light into the Genoese context. Works by Andrea Semino (1526–1594), Orazio De Ferrari (1606–1657), and Domenico Piola (1627–1703) further enrich the interior, making the basilica a virtual gallery of the Genoese Baroque and an important record of the local school’s development.

Though the Second World War bombardments inflicted serious and in some cases irreparable damage—still visible in certain chapels—post-war restoration has preserved the basilica’s essential unity.

Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?

Yvo Reinsalu

October 2024

Chiesa del Gesù e dei Santi Ambrogio e Andrea in Genoa is among the most complete expressions of Genoese Baroque at its height, built in a period when the city’s wealth and political power fostered an unprecedented concentration of artistic patronage. Construction began in 1589 under the Jesuit architect Giuseppe Valeriano (1542–1596), replacing an earlier church dedicated to Saint Ambrose. Conceived as a principal Jesuit foundation in Liguria, it embodied the order’s dual mission of spiritual renewal and education during the Counter-Reformation, using the visual arts as a persuasive instrument of faith.

The interior was designed as a theatre of devotion, uniting polychrome marbles, gilded stucco, and fresco cycles into a single, integrated decorative programme. The central nave and dome were frescoed by the Genoese brothers Giovanni Carlone (1584–1631) and Giovanni Battista Carlone (1603–1684), whose large-scale compositions on the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary were intended to envelop the viewer in continuous sacred narrative. Their work combines clear figural drawing with dense, colour-rich surfaces, qualities that became defining features of the Genoese Baroque.

The church’s position at the centre of Jesuit patronage attracted commissions for foreign masters of the highest standing. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) is represented by The Circumcision (1605) and The Miracles of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1620), both commissioned by the Pallavicino family. These works, informed by Rubens’ study of Caravaggio, Titian, and Tintoretto, merge dramatic lighting with dynamic composition, creating a heightened sense of immediacy. Other distinguished contributions include Guido Reni’s (1575–1642) Roman classicism, Simon Vouet’s (1590–1649) French-inflected Baroque, and Tommaso Orsolino’s (1587–1670) Nativity (1623), carved in marble with a sculptor’s sensitivity to narrative gesture.

Equally significant is the role of local dynasties such as the Carlone and Piola families, who absorbed the lessons of Rubens’ dynamic style while adapting them to Genoese tastes. Domenico Piola (1627–1703) and his circle exemplified this local synthesis, balancing theatrical energy with a decorative clarity well suited to Genoa’s church interiors. After the French bombardment of 1684, which caused extensive damage across the city, Genoese artists took on a more prominent role in restoration and new commissions. Lorenzo De Ferrari (1680–1744), heir to the Piola tradition, repainted damaged areas and introduced a lighter palette and more fluid composition, marking the emergence of a distinct local identity within the broader European Baroque.

The Basilica di Santa Maria delle Vigne in Genoa embodies a rare dialogue between its Romanesque origins and the grandeur of the High Baroque. Its earliest phase began in the 10th century under Oberto Visconti and Guido di Carmandino, and the church was consecrated in 1117. Of this first structure, the mid-12th-century bell tower survives, its robust masonry and narrow arched openings recalling the Lombard Romanesque style then prevalent across Liguria.

From the 1640s, the basilica underwent a profound transformation under the architect Daniele Casella (1606–1677), whose design reflected the maturing Genoese Baroque, by then increasingly shaped by local talent rather than imported models. Casella’s work integrated the existing medieval fabric into a renewed spatial order that emphasised grandeur, light, and theatricality. The process of stylistic layering continued into the 19th century, when Ippolito Cremona (1804–1847) added a Neoclassical façade that, despite its very different vocabulary, was harmonised with the building’s earlier forms.

The basilica’s frescoes form one of its most distinctive artistic achievements. Lazzaro Tavarone’s (1556–1641) Gloria di Maria, in the presbytery, is the focal point of the Baroque decorative scheme, uniting a dense arrangement of figures with a vertical surge of light that draws the viewer’s gaze heavenwards. In the 18th century, following earlier damage, further frescoes were painted by Giuseppe Palmieri (1721–1793) and Paolo Gerolamo Brusco (1742–1820). Their work in the nave shows the mature High Baroque’s fascination with movement, rich colour, and dramatic illumination, all employed to exalt the Virgin’s glory.

The basilica’s sculptural ensemble adds another layer to its history. Domenico Piola (1628–1703) and his workshop were central to the development of the later Genoese Baroque idiom represented here, while Giacomo Antonio Ponsonelli (1654–1735), a pupil of Pierre Puget, produced much of the marble decoration, including the high altar with its architectural framing and sculpted ornament. Taddeo Carlone (1543–1613), a generation earlier, left his mark in both structural and sculptural elements, linking the basilica’s Renaissance and Baroque phases. Together, these contributions weave a continuous visual language that reconciles the exuberance of seventeenth-century Genoa with the solidity of its medieval foundations.

Beyond its architectural and artistic significance, the basilica occupies a place in music history as the burial site of Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682), one of the most original Italian composers of the Baroque. His murder, widely believed to have been connected to a romantic intrigue, remains one of the more colourful and unresolved episodes in Genoa’s seventeenth-century history.

Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?

September 2024

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Bibliography

Whitfield, P. (2020) Historic Churches of Genoa: A Brief Guide. Genoa: Peter Whitfield.

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The Loggia degli Eroi (Heroes’ Lodge) in the Palazzo del Principe, Genoa, represents one of the crowning achievements of Perino del Vaga (1501-1547), who completed this elaborate decoration between 1528 and 1533. Commissioned by Andrea Doria, the loggia honours the illustrious hundreds of years of the Dorias’ lineage. 

The loggia features an extensive cycle of frescoes and stucco work, blending mythological themes with dynastic pride. Along the walls, twelve warriors appear dressed as ancient Romans—except one in modern armour—symbolising the virtues of the Doria ancestors, all identified by shields bearing the family crest and a black eagle on a gold and silver field. An inscription reads: ‘PRAECLARAE FAMILIAE MAGNI VIRI MAXIMI DUCES OPTIMA FECERE PRO PATRIA’ (‘The great men of the illustrious family, supreme leaders, performed excellent deeds for their homeland’). Inspired by Michelangelo’s statues in the Medici Chapels, these figures are linked through a rhythmic sequence of gestures, one of Perino’s most original inventions.

The vault’s five sections display octagonal medallions bordered by fine stucco depicting Roman patriotism—heroic sacrifices for Rome, including tales of Orazio Coclite, Tito Manlio Torquato, Marco Curzio, Furio Camillo, and Muzio Scevola. Drawing on Plutarch’s example, the frescoes present a deliberate parallel between Roman legacy and Doria family virtues, positioning the Dorias as modern-day saviours of their homeland.

Following initial works, the loggia underwent many alterations. In the mid-19th century,  Annibale Angelini led efforts to revive damaged sections, covering some nudity with additional drapery in accordance with the modesty standards of the time. However, in April 1849, during violent uprisings against Piedmont, the palazzo suffered artillery damage. Further devastation occurred during the Second World War, significantly impacting parts of the palace, affecting the condition of many frescoes. Fortunately, a large portion of the artwork has been preserved through dedicated restoration efforts.

Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?

Yvo Reinsalu

October 2024

Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa embodies more than nine centuries of architectural change, each phase bearing the imprint of shifting artistic traditions and the city’s own fortunes. Construction began in the early twelfth century under the direction of the Magistri Antelami, master builders, sculptors, and stonemasons from the Valle d’Intelvi near Como, who endowed the original Romanesque structure with robust masonry, rounded arches, and sculpted portals characteristic of Lombard craftsmanship.

The earthquake of 1222 brought both damage and opportunity. In its aftermath, French-Norman craftsmen oversaw a comprehensive Gothic remodelling, introducing ribbed vaulting, pointed arches, and the black-and-white marble striping that would become emblematic of Genoese Gothic. Between 1307 and 1312 the façade reached completion, its alternating bands of marble creating a rhythm of light and shadow, while the interior saw the frescoing of the counter-façade, the reworking of the colonnades with new capitals, and the construction of false matronea—galleries built for structural reinforcement but also to heighten the visual complexity of the nave.

In 1448 the Cappella di San Giovanni Battista was added to enshrine the relics of St John the Baptist, brought to Genoa from the Holy Land after the First Crusade. The cathedral’s treasury grew to include other celebrated relics: the Sacro Catino, long venerated as the vessel of the Last Supper; the Piatto di San Giovanni, traditionally said to have held the head of the Baptist; and the Croce degli Zaccaria, a Byzantine reliquary containing a fragment of the True Cross.

The sixteenth century brought Renaissance order to parts of the building under the hand of Galeazzo Alessi (1512–1572), who reworked the nave, floor, and dome to reflect a measured symmetry. In the seventeenth century Lazzaro Tavarone (1556–1641) enriched the apse with the Stories of San Lorenzo, frescoes framed by gilded Baroque stuccoes that intensified both colour and narrative drama.

By 1840, Carlo Rubatto (1803–1875) had completed the pair of marble lions that flank the entrance steps, a neoclassical gesture that, while distinct from the medieval and Baroque fabric, concluded the major external works and fixed the façade’s present appearance.

Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?

October 2024

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Bibliography

Whitfield, P. (2020) Historic Churches of Genoa: A Brief Guide. Genoa: Peter Whitfield.

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Commissioned in 1532 by the brothers Agostino and Giacomo Salvago, the Palazzo Salvago rose on the site of an earlier medieval curia, a reminder of Genoa’s long civic and mercantile history. Its façade, with alternating courses of white marble and dark slate and an upper storey of trilobed arches, reflects a characteristically Genoese interpretation of Gothic traditions that had persisted well into the Renaissance. This interplay of light and dark masonry was not merely decorative; it signalled wealth and status while paying homage to the city’s medieval artistic vocabulary. The balance between vertical austerity and ornamental refinement gives the building a presence that is at once commanding and harmonious, a product of the city’s mastery of proportion and surface detail in the sixteenth century.

The palazzo entered the official Rolli di Genova in 1576 and again in 1588, a register that named private palaces approved to receive state visitors on behalf of the Republic. This system, unique to Genoa, formalised the role of aristocratic families in hosting foreign envoys, ambassadors, and princes, turning private architectural splendour into an instrument of diplomacy.

By the later sixteenth century, Genoa was home to more than a hundred Renaissance palaces, forty-two of which today form the UNESCO-recognised Palazzi dei Rolli. Built largely between the mid-sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, these residences displayed an extraordinary concentration of artistic investment. Their interiors were adorned with fresco cycles by leading Ligurian and Lombard painters, stucco reliefs, and carved marble portals, while their façades often incorporated symbolic programmes in which mythological figures, biblical episodes, and allegorical personifications reflected the virtues, lineage, or mercantile achievements of their owners. In this way, the palaces became visual statements of Genoa’s economic power and cultural sophistication, binding architectural form to the political and social narratives of the Republic’s golden age.

Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?

Yvo Reinsalu

September 2024

Basilica della Santissima Annunziata del Vastato is a quintessential example of Genoese Baroque, marked by its reliance on local artists and architects. Construction of the current structure began in 1520 under the Franciscans, with Taddeo Carlone (1543–1615) shaping the early architecture, including the presbytery and dome. In 1591, the Lomellini family funded its renovation and expansion for their needs. The Carlone brothers, Giovanni Carlone (1584–1631) and Giovanni Battista Carlone (1603–1684) adorned the vaults and naves with frescoes, expressing Baroque’s drama and movement through dynamic compositions and contrasts of light and shadow.

One of the most notable works in the basilica is the ‘Assumption of the Virgin’, painted in the dome by Andrea Ansaldo (1584–1638). This dramatic example of Baroque illusionism features ascending figures and complex architectural interplay. This fresco, intended to elevate the viewer’s spiritual experience, was later restored by Gregorio De Ferrari (1647–1726).

Several other artists enhanced the basilica’s Baroque grandeur. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609–1664) created the fresco ‘St. James Defeats the Moors’, and Valerio Castello (1624–1659) painted ‘The Martyrdom of St. James’. Giulio Cesare Procaccini (1574–1625) contributed to the ‘Last Supper’, a dramatic depiction of Christ’s final meal, above the central nave’s entrance. The prophets flanking the Last Supper are attributed to either Gioacchino Assereto (1600–1649) or Giulio Benso (1601–1668). It seems that the iconographic programme for the entrance of the central nave was common across many churches in Liguria and Piedmont, frequently featuring the Last Supper in this location.

The church suffered significant damage during World War II, particularly on its south-east side, where several frescoes, including works by Domenico Fiasella (1589–1669), were lost.

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Bibliography

Whitfield, P. (2020) Historic Churches of Genoa: A Brief Guide. Genoa: Peter Whitfield.

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Perino del Vaga (1501-1547), The Fall of the Giants, 1531-33, Fresco, 640 x 920 cm, Palazzo dei Principe, Genoa

Executed with a mastery that places it among the finest monumental frescoes of early sixteenth-century Italy, the cycle painted between 1531 and 1533 captures both the grandeur of the High Renaissance and the charged political atmosphere of its time. It belongs to one of the most pivotal moments in Genoa’s history, when the Republic was still recovering from decades of instability. The trauma of 1522, when the city endured a destructive French siege that forced many into exile, remained a vivid memory, shaping both civic identity and political policy. Its commissioner, Admiral Andrea Doria (1466–1560), had, in 1528, expelled the French and secured Genoa’s alliance with Emperor Charles V (1500–1558) of the Habsburg dynasty, ensuring a degree of independence under imperial protection. The fresco was conceived not merely as decoration for Doria’s palace, but as a deliberate visual statement of the Republic’s restored order, intended to impress foreign envoys and, above all, to welcome Charles V, the most powerful ruler in Europe.

The subject—Jupiter’s triumph over the Giants in the mythological Gigantomachy—was carefully chosen for its political resonance. In classical tradition, the Giants’ assault on Mount Olympus symbolised rebellion against legitimate authority, and their defeat affirmed the supremacy of divine order. Here, Jupiter’s victory became an allegory for Genoa’s deliverance from external threats, whether from France, the Ottoman Empire, or the rival Italian powers that had long unsettled the region. The parallel was clear: Charles V, like Jupiter, maintained order through unrivalled might, while Doria, as his ally, acted as the guarantor of Genoa’s security. Such framing reflected the Renaissance tendency to cast contemporary politics in the elevated idiom of classical myth, thereby lending current events an aura of timeless legitimacy.

Artistically, the work represents one of the most significant introductions of Roman High Renaissance style to Genoa. Perino del Vaga (1501–1547), a pupil of Raphael (1483–1520) and a painter deeply influenced by Michelangelo (1475–1564), brought to the city an advanced language of anatomy, proportion, and spatial organisation. The figures possess both muscular vitality and compositional grace, their gestures controlled yet expressive. Perino’s use of sweeping diagonals and dramatic chiaroscuro turns the myth into a theatre of divine justice, where light signifies the restoration of order and shadow embodies the chaos of rebellion.

The fresco thus operates on multiple levels: as an artwork of exceptional technical refinement, as a testament to Genoa’s political renewal, and as a humanist reimagining of myth in the service of contemporary power. In Doria’s palace, it proclaimed not only the prestige of its patron but also the cultural and political ambitions of a Republic newly secure in its place within the imperial order.

Yvo Reinsalu

September 2024

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640),The Three Graces, c. 1636, Oil on oak, 39.9 x 39.9 cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael (1628/1629–1682), A Waterfall, 1670–79, Oil on canvas, 98.5 x 83.4 cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

During the Dutch Golden Age, Jacob van Ruisdael played a key role in popularising the Scandinavian landscape theme, a distinctive sub-genre in landscape painting. This work showcases dramatic scenes of mountains, cascading waterfalls, and forests growing on the rocks. Interestingly, Ruisdael never travelled to Scandinavia himself. His native Netherlands is predominantly flat, with only a few low hills along the German border, so such landscapes were far removed from his everyday surroundings.

Ruisdael’s inspiration for Scandinavian scenery came from travel accounts, sketches, and the work of other artists who had journeyed north. Among these influences was Allart van Everdingen (1621–1675), who visited Norway and Sweden in the 1640s. Van Everdingen returned with sketches and descriptions of the landscapes he had encountered, which he incorporated into his paintings and which soon gained popularity in the Netherlands. These depictions ignited Ruisdael’s imagination, leading him to create his own interpretations of Nordic landscapes—often entirely imaginary yet powerfully evocative. Through his work, Ruisdael introduced audiences to a sublime northern wilderness, a vision that resonated deeply and continued to influence landscape painting long after his time.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640),Three Nymphs with a Cornucopia, c. 1625–8, Oil on oak, 30.9 x 24.4 cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

This small painting, held in the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, served as a preparatory modello for the larger painting now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. The modello offers a rare glimpse into Rubens’s working methods, revealing his process of refining ideas before committing them to larger compositions. Its iconography draws on classical mythology, specifically the imagery of the cornucopia, or ‘horn of plenty’. This symbol, rooted in Ancient Greek myth, is associated with the tale of the river god Achelous, whose broken horn was filled with fruits and flowers by nymphs, signifying abundance and fertility.

Rubens’s career during this period was strongly influenced by his close relationship with Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566–1633), Infanta of Spain and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. As a major patron, she supported his artistic endeavours and entrusted him with diplomatic missions, recognising his potential to serve both artistic and political ends. Following the death of her husband, Archduke Albert VII (1559–1621), Isabella’s patronage became crucial in shaping Rubens’s career trajectory.

In 1628, Isabella facilitated Rubens’s journey to Madrid, covering the costs of several works he presented to her nephew, King Philip IV of Spain (1605–1665), upon his arrival. This gesture reflected her confidence in Rubens’s ability to impress the Spanish court. Her judgement proved correct, as Rubens’s works were highly praised.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669),Portrait of a Young Man, c.1660s ?, Oil on canvas, 78.6 x 64.2 cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery

This painting is intriguing in both its style and conception. Although part of Rembrandt’s corpus of portraits of his son Titus, it does not serve as a literal likeness. Instead, it represents a ‘type’—a universalised image combining expressive qualities rather than depicting a specific individual.

The painting reflects Rembrandt’s role as both an artist-scholar and teacher. His mastery of light, shadow, and detail made each study a valuable exploration of human emotion and form. By creating tronies and prototypes, Rembrandt explored dramatic expressions, fantasy costumes, and varied lighting, serving as models his pupils could learn from and emulate. This enriched the workshop environment, allowing apprentices to practice complex artistic techniques.

As a ‘tronie’—a genre focused on expressive character studies rather than commissioned likenesses—this work captures archetypes like youth, wisdom or introspection. The Dutch genre ‘tronie’ translates to ‘face’ or ‘expression,’ enabling Rembrandt to develop foundational models for his students and the art market. Similar versions created by his pupils confirm its instructional and exploratory purpose.

The sitter’s attire, hat, and posture echo the 16th-century Venetian style, mainly Titian’s portraits of merchants, elevating it beyond a simple character study. Rembrandt often reused a few key character types inspired by people close to him, including family. This blend of scholarly artistry with emotional depth defines his legacy, capturing not only likenesses but timeless expressions of humanity that influenced his students and the broader art world.

By the 1620s, interest in elaborate decoration had revived in Anglican England, with most large-scale church window commissions being carried out by foreign artists. The van Linge brothers, originally from East Frisia, brought innovative techniques with them when they emigrated to London after working in Paris. In the newly rebuilt Chapel of Lincoln’s Inn, completed by 1623, Abraham van Linge (floruit 1625–41) and his brother Bernard van Linge (1598 – c. 1644) created six striking painted glass windows. These 17th-century windows are distinctive for their simpler technique of painting vitreous enamels onto transparent glass, which was then kiln-fired. Unlike traditional stained glass, white glass was cut into panes and painted like a translucent canvas, with lead strips reduced to a basic grid to hold the design together.

The windows in the Chapel depict apostles against landscape backgrounds. On the south side, they include scenes of Lincoln’s Inn itself, showing the Treasurer and the City of London receiving the keys to the Chapel in 1623.