Spinola service, a valuable new acquisition in the National Gallery of Liguria

OnTuesday, March 12, 2019, at 5 p.m., the splendid Spinola service, composed of 29 pieces, purchased in 2016 by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and around which the entire section of ceramics that came to the Palace in 1958 thanks to the Spinola donation, will be presented at the Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola in Genoa. In addition, the new acquisition is the subject of a specific volume of studies published by Sagep.

This is a fine and precious Chinese porcelain tea service, commissioned by a refined exponent of one of the branches of the Spinola lineage, which features a coat ofarms with theSpinola coat of arms in the center surrounded by the emblems of important Genoese lineages related to it; sixteen noble coats of arms representing the noble arms of the sixteen families of the ascendants.

At the behest of Marquises Paolo and Franco Spinola at the Pellicceria mansion came a set of pieces datable to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries related to the spread of the social custom of gathering for coffee, chocolate, and, beginning in the early eighteenth century, even tea. In Genoa tea began to be imported, through the English and Dutch Companies especially from the late eighteenth century and consequently that is the period from which the demand for services was created initially with a large preference for silver, soon replaced by porcelain services, more refined and considered status symbols.

A series of guided tours, lectures and tastings related to the tea ritual and the rich cultural contaminations - between East and West - will be organized on this occasion. In particular, porcelain services of Eastern and European production will be compared, comparing the different rituals created around this beverage, from the Japanese tea ceremony to the English "five o’clock tea" with special attention to the role tea played in the daily life of the Spinola family.

The Spinola service, a new acquisition in the National Gallery of Liguria ’s ceramic holdings at Palazzo Spinola, will be presented by Dr. Elisabetta Piccioni, acting director of Palazzo Reale, Donatella Failla, Farida Simonetti and Gianluca Zanelli.

Spinola service, a valuable new acquisition in the National Gallery of Liguria

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