Around 1618 Bernardo Strozzi received from Gio. Stefano Doria the task of frescoing a room on the ground floor of Palazzo Branca Doria in piazza San Matteo, unfortunately damaged by humidity and which cannot be seen well any longer. This was the first fresco commission for this painter, who was then taken on to decorate the choir vault in the Genoese church of Saints Tomaso and Domenico, this was destroyed in the XIX century and in whose place the Carlo Felice theatre was later on built. Very little has been preserved of this majestic work of art - a fragment can be found today in the stores of the Accademia Ligustica - the composition is known thanks to a detailed sketch on display in the adjacent museum.
Read more: Frescoes on the first state floorBy the first half of the eighteenth century, the building was at the centre of a new campaign of interventions on the second state floor.
Read more: Second state floorThe vault of this room, structured on two levels, is likely due to the unification of two adjacent rooms: what can be seen today, two fragmentary scenes, seems to be the consequence of the quarrel between the painter and its client.
Read more: Fragments hallFor the visitors as well as for the residents of Genoa it is quite exciting to view these lively and very pleasant works of art by Strozzi, frescos hidden for so long that they were considered lost by now.
Read more: Main hallThe room is the only one of the three overlooking Strada Nuova that maintains its original dimensions.
Read more: Astrology hallThe access to the three rooms frescoed by Strozzi goes through a wide room, in which the recent restoration works brought back to life a squaring of the walls and seven decorated lunettes, leftovers of a frescoed vault.
Read more: Entrance room