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GENRE-PAINTING 



135 





DIII:I//.I I'allavicini, spinola, Balbi-Senarega, and 

 others possess great interest on account of their 

 IM-IOI i.-.il I'ann- nn<l architectural Ix'uutv. Many of 

 tin-in cciniiiiu galleries of paintings ; the Brignole- 

 ; i;i> \\oik- l>v Van Dyck, KiilM-n-. AH>ruclit 

 D.IIVI, Paolo Veronese, (iiiercino, \-c. Fun-most 

 amongst the churches stands tlie catliedral of St 

 l.oi.-n/o, a grand old pile in tlie Italian Gothic 

 -'\!i-, liuili in tin- I -Mli century and frequently 

 -tur.-d. In tin- clmrcli of St Ainbrogio ( 1589) are 

 III--IIIK-- by (iiiido Heni and Rubens, and in that 

 .I St Stefano an altar-piece by (liulio Romano; 

 the interior of 1,'Ammn/iata is splendid with fine 

 marbles and ricli ^il.liii^. The marble municipal 

 palace, built in tlie Late Renaissance style, with 

 a magnificent vestibule, courtyard, and galleries, 

 and the palace of the Dogana must also be men- 

 timii'd. The univei-sity (790 students in 1886), 

 oik'iually built in 1623, reorganised in 1812, has 

 a library of 116,000 volumes. Genoa is well sup- 

 iiiit-d with technical schools and institutions for 

 higher education. The great hospital, the asylum 

 ir tlie poor (provision for 2200 persons), the deaf 

 ami dumb institution, and the hospital for the 

 insane are amongst the finest institutions of their 

 kind in Italy. There are numerous excellent 



.philanthropic foundations, as the Fieschi, an- asylum 

 for it-male orphans. Furthermore, we must men- 

 tion tlie public library, containing 50,000 volumes; 

 til-- Academy of Fine Arts, founded (1751) by the 

 Doria family ; the Carlo Felice Theatre, one of the 

 finest in Italy ; and the Verdi Institute of Music. 



The Genoese are a shrewd, active, laborious race, 

 and possess all the qualities of a commercial and 

 maritime community. They make skilful and 

 hardy seamen, and are still remarkable for the 

 spirit of enterprise and freedom which so strongly 

 characterised the period of the republic. To 

 Columbus, Genoa's most famous son, there is a fine 

 monument (1862) by Lan/io. 



History. (Jenoa, anciently the capital of Liguria, 

 is lirst mentioned as a place of considerable import- 

 ance in the second Punic war. Having been de- 

 stroyed by Mago, brother of Hannibal, in 205, it was 

 rebuilt three years later by the Roman pnetor Sp. 

 Lucretius. On the dismemberment of the Latin 

 empire Genoa fell successively under the sway of 

 the Lombards, the Franks, and the Germans; but 

 amid all these vicissitudes it preserved, in a 

 singular degree, both privileges and prosperity. 

 At length it succeeded in establishing its independ- 

 ence as a republic. Even thus early commerce was 

 the source of its power. The frequent incursions 

 of the Saracens, by whom (ie.noa was sacked and 

 pillaged in 936, led the Genoese to form an 

 alliance with Pisa with the object of driving the 

 aggressors from Corsica and Sardinia, their strong- 

 holds in tin- Mediterranean. This being effected 

 (1017-21), the Genoese obtained, by papal arbitra- 

 tion, the grant of Corsica, while Sardinia was 

 assigned to the Pisans, a distribution which sowed 

 the seeds of future discord between the two states. 

 At the close of the llth century Genoa commanded 

 large land and naval forces, and ranked as a power- 

 ful maritime state, governed by annual magis- 

 trates named consuls. The Genoese vigorously 

 seconded the Crusades, and in return for their 

 Hl'ective co-operation obtained several important 

 maritime po-.-~c-.Mons and commercial privileges 

 in the Holy Land (1109). The chief events of 

 the three following centuries were the capture of 

 Minorca (1146), Almeria (1147), and Tortosa 

 (1148) from the Moors; the wars with Pisa and 

 Venice ; and the civil dissensions by which Genoa, 

 in common with all Italy, l>ecame distracted by 

 the Guelph and Ghihelline factions. In 1284, a't 

 the naval battle at Meloria the Pisnn Republic sus- 

 tained such destructive losses that her maritime 



influence and public spirit never revived. The 

 wars with Venice originated about 1244 in mutual 

 jealousies respecting the commercial Mipremacy in 

 the Levant, and continued, with various \i--i--i 

 tudes, till the end of the following century, when 

 the Genoese, after the blockade of Chioggia( 1379), 

 were compelled to submit to disadvantageous 

 terms by the peace of Turin ( 1381 ). 



Co-existent with thin troublous external hi- 

 tory, civil dissensions exhausted and demoralised 

 the state, and occasioned an infinity of change** 

 in the primitive form of government. In 1217 

 the consuls were superseded by a magistrate 

 termed poileata, generally chosen from a foreign 

 state, natives of Genoa Iming declared ineli- 

 gible. During the next hundred years civil feuds 

 raged inveterately, not alone between the Gueloh 

 and Ghihelline factions, but also between the 

 patricians and the plebeians. Various other modi- 

 fications of the government preceded the election 

 of the first Genoese doge in 1339. This supreme 

 magisterial office, from which all nobles were ex- 

 cluded, continued in force for two centuries, its 

 tenure being for life. But even then matters did 

 not improve much. Finally, in 1396, the citizens, 

 in despair, invoked the protection of the French 

 king, Charles VI., and, after alternating between 

 France and Milan, at last submitted to the rule of 

 the lords of Milan ( 1464). In 1407 was founded the 

 bank of St George, which eventually became a 

 very powerful association, not only financially but. 

 also politically. From the invasion of Milan by 

 Louis XII. in 1499 Genoa remained subject to the 

 French until, in 1528, the genius and resolution of 

 Andrea Doria (q.v.) freed his country from foreign 

 invaders, and restored to her her republican institu- 

 tions. The Fieschi conspiracy, which had for its 

 object the overthrow of Doria and the destruction 

 of the French party amongst the nobles, was sup- 

 pressed in 1547. The 17th century is marked by 

 two wars against the Duke of Savoy (1631 and 

 1672) and the bombardment of the town by Louis 

 XIV. (1684). The last important exploit of the 

 Genoese was the expulsion in 1746 of the Austrians 

 after an occupation of three months. In 1768Genoa 

 ceded to France the island of Corsica; and when 

 Bonaparte invaded Italy he conferred (1797) on 

 Genoa the name of the Ligurian Republic, which in 

 1802 was abolished, Genoa becoming the chief town 

 of a department of France. In 1814 Lord Bentinck 

 stormed the forts and captured the city, whereupon 

 he restored the constitution which had existed 

 previous to 1797. In 1815, by a decree of the Con 

 gress of Vienna, the state of Genoa was made a 

 province of Piedmont. Following the fortunes of 

 that state, it was finally incorporated in the king- 

 dom of Italy. The opening 01 the St Gothard rafl- 

 way greatly increased the trade with Germany. 



See J. T. Bent, Genoa (1880); Bella Duffy, The Tuscan 

 Republics ( 1892 ) ; V. W. Johnson, Qeiwa tiie Superb ( 1892). 



Genoa, GULF OF, a large indentation in the 

 northern shore of the Mediterranean, north of 

 Corsica, has between the towns of Oneglia on the 

 west and Spezia on the east a width of nearly 90 

 miles, with a depth of about 30 miles. 



Genre-painting. Genre (French, from the 

 Latin genus, ' a kind ') is a term in art which was 

 originally used to indicate simply any class or 

 /.///'/ of paint ing. and was always accompanied by 

 a distinctive adjective or epith'et, as genre histo- 

 rique, ' historical painting,' genre an paysage, 

 'landscape-painting.' The phrase genre or genre- 

 painting, however, has now come to be applied 

 to scenes from familiar or rustic life, to all figure- 

 pictures which, from the homeliness of their sub- 

 jects, do not attain to the dignity of ' historical ' art. 

 (//(/(-painting, in its most typical development, 



