Genoa - Palace of Saint George
The sixteenth-century wing overlooks via della Mercanzia, with the façade entirely covered with frescoes by Raimondo Sirotti that follow those made at the beginning of the twentieth century by Ludovico Pogliaghi, who in turn had rebuilt, reinterpreting them, the original ones of the Tavarone.
The painted decoration of the facade reproduces a marble cladding with ashlar on the ground floor and pilasters that divide the façade into three sections. In the center of the façade, above the imposing marble entrance portal, stands the polychrome figure depicting St. George on horseback killing the dragon, a recurring image in numerous portals of the buildings of the historic center: in the Middle Ages the saint was in fact considered the very symbol of Republic. The subject was freely interpreted by Sirotti in 1990, having disappeared all traces of the seventeenth-century original. On the sides, from left to right, six bronze statues are painted inside false niches, depicting some historical figures of the Republic: the annalist Caffaro, the "Prince" Andrea Doria, the doge Simone Boccanegra (according to some the painting would instead depict the founder of the palace, Guglielmo Boccanegra), the crusader leader Guglielmo Embriaco known as "Head of a mallet", the navigator Christopher Columbus and finally the admiral Benedetto Zaccaria.
The decoration is completed by the figures of Janus and Neptune, also in fake bronze, and the coat of arms of the "Conservatori del Mare", the body in charge of governing the port at the time of the Republic of Genoa. The facade culminates with the clock tower.
Genoa - Palace of Saint George
The sixteenth-century wing overlooks via della Mercanzia, with the façade entirely covered with frescoes by Raimondo Sirotti that follow those made at the beginning of the twentieth century by Ludovico Pogliaghi, who in turn had rebuilt, reinterpreting them, the original ones of the Tavarone.
The painted decoration of the facade reproduces a marble cladding with ashlar on the ground floor and pilasters that divide the façade into three sections. In the center of the façade, above the imposing marble entrance portal, stands the polychrome figure depicting St. George on horseback killing the dragon, a recurring image in numerous portals of the buildings of the historic center: in the Middle Ages the saint was in fact considered the very symbol of Republic. The subject was freely interpreted by Sirotti in 1990, having disappeared all traces of the seventeenth-century original. On the sides, from left to right, six bronze statues are painted inside false niches, depicting some historical figures of the Republic: the annalist Caffaro, the "Prince" Andrea Doria, the doge Simone Boccanegra (according to some the painting would instead depict the founder of the palace, Guglielmo Boccanegra), the crusader leader Guglielmo Embriaco known as "Head of a mallet", the navigator Christopher Columbus and finally the admiral Benedetto Zaccaria.
The decoration is completed by the figures of Janus and Neptune, also in fake bronze, and the coat of arms of the "Conservatori del Mare", the body in charge of governing the port at the time of the Republic of Genoa. The facade culminates with the clock tower.