A masterpiece of 18th-century Italian painting, Entertainment in a Garden of Albaro by Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749), provides the inspiration for the exhibition documented in this catalogue, which aims to explore the particular theme of “garden entertainment” in painting between the 16th and 18th centuries. Magnasco’s work is compared to images of gardens populated by figures produced within the Flemish culture, which included painters such as Jan Wildens and Cornelis De Wael, active in Genoa in the early 17th century, and Guilliam van Deynen, whose previously unpublished Entertainment is presented, a direct predecessor to Magnasco’s. The comparison with similar 18th-century subjects by other celebrated artists such as Giovanni Pannini and Filippo Falciatore finally demonstrates the revolutionary nature of the Genoese canvas, both in terms of the view and, above all, the society depicted.

The volume includes texts by Raffaella Besta, Piero Boccardo, and Margherita Priarone.

Genoa, December 2010 – May 2011