Artistic assets section of the Perrando family

In full respect of Ebe Perrando's noble gesture, an attempt was made in the four rooms of the section to reconstruct part of the furnishings that were in the palace according to their presumed original position.

Room 4 is certainly the most authentic and evocative. The bookshelves covering the walls seem to have stopped time, when family members would gather there to study law, theology, medicine, geography, archaeology, or relax with works of fiction and poetry.

In the center of the wall to the right of the entrance, there is a portrait of the aforementioned Don Pier Maria Perrando (1590-1662); on the side, two oil on canvas paintings of a gentleman and a lady from the Perrando family, which, based on the style of clothing, are dated to the early decades of the 19th century; on the sides of the wall, to the left a devotional painting of St. Mary Magdalene meditating on the Crucifix with, on the right, the skull on which an open book and a small jar of ointment rest, with a wooded landscape in the background, dated to the 18th century; to the right, a painting within a gilded oval wooden frame, the scene is set in Paradise where St. Nicholas, identified by the symbol of the three golden globes and the episcopal insignia, prostrates himself before the Virgin, who places the pallium on him, following the order of Christ who witnesses the scene, attributed to an anonymous artist of Ligurian culture active in the second half of the 18th century.

The armchair and the two chairs, upholstered in velvet, are made of solid walnut carved in the typical shape of Genoese neoclassicism of French derivation, late 18th century; likewise, the other armchairs and small armchairs found in the four rooms are also made of carved solid walnut, where the Genoese origin is confirmed by the neoclassical style, with some barocchetto (seat, armrests) features and the use of canné.

Among the various objects displayed in the library showcases stands out a sundial made of cast and engraved brass, Müller L.T. factory - Augsburg (Germany), mid-18th century.

Entering room 5 on the right a chest, with decorative motifs—shape and type—typical of the Renaissance, when furniture was always made of solid wood, is dated to the late 17th or early 18th century by the walnut veneer glued onto a poplar structure; a canné armchair features an original anthropomorphic head carved at the top of the backrest, whereas more commonly pinecones or olive branches were used.

On the same central wall, two 18th-century paintings attributed to an imitator of Jakob Franz Cipper known as Todeschino, since the subjects, a spinner and a young peasant, were often used by the painter; also: a rural landscape with figures and animals of difficult attribution (Travi - Sestri), from the b

sketchy style probably from the eighteenth century; a St. Francis in ecstasy supported by two angels attributed by Camillo Manzitti to Guglielmo Caccia known as il Moncalvo (1568/1625); a portrait of a noblewoman from the Perrando family, the hairstyle and the type of bodice date it to around the mid-seventeenth century.

On the wall adjacent to the entrance, a large canvas set within a molded frame depicts a falcon hunting scene, difficult to interpret, reminiscent of the canvases with Stories from the Aeneid executed at the end of the 18th century by Gio Batta Magliani, a painter from Savona. Opposite the entrance, there is a Madonna attributable to the 18th century and a portrait of St. Philip Neri, datable after 1622, the date of the saint's canonization, here depicted with a halo. On the left wall, an Adoration of the Child, in the background St. Joseph can be glimpsed and on the right a male figure, 18th century. On the same wall, a large canvas with an exodus scene, attributed to Giò Benedetto Castiglione known as il Grechetto (1610/1665), while according to Bartoletti it is the work of an imitator.

In room 6 the first showcase of ceramics from the Albisola and Savona schools, among which are the two luminous majolica perfume burner vases by Giacomo Boselli (1744/1808); an 18th-century vase with a central coat of arms, marked with an orb and the letters B.L., attributed by Cameirana to the company Boselli Giuseppe and Levantino Angelo, active in Savona in the second half of the 18th century; a jug in the shape of an "inverted helmet" from the 17th century by Giovan Battista Croce; an 18th-century veilleuse attributed to Giacomo Berti; also by Giacomo Boselli, apparently without a mark, the egg cup with floral motifs typical of the "Strasbourg rose," a style invented by Hannong and very often adopted by the Savona ceramist; a perfume burner vase in the shape of an amphora typical of the Venetian style attributed to Pasquale Antonibon (1738/1774).

On the walls, four large canvases. A landscape with figures and ruined architecture, reminiscent of the style of Viviano Codazzi, 18th century. In addition: an Adoration of the Shepherds, a landscape with cattle and a cliff, another landscape also with cattle with a tree backdrop in the foreground; the latter two are attributed to the same author, who is not identified as with the first, but can still be dated to the 18th century.

At the back, a piano recently donated by Mr. Tommaso Badano is prominently displayed, along with a series of Genoese armchairs restored in the 1990s.

In room 7 the second showcase of ceramics, among the most valuable:

a late eighteenth-century stand (circular plate with raised border), with floral motifs painted by the painter Paolo Gerolamo Brusco (1772/1820) produced by the Boselli manufactory; another stand with a scene of oriental life painted by Antonio Maria Coppellotti (1679/1750 ca.), a painter from Lodi; a vase inscribed with Olli - Laurino and scattered phytomorphic motifs, which could be related to the products of the Grosso manufactory of Albisola (Savona), the "tapestry" decoration is typical of the 17th century; some lids from the 18th century, one comparable to the style of the Giacomo Berti manufactory; a broth cup with floral motifs from the Savona-based Giordano manufactory, mid-18th century; also from the Giordano family, a teapot with a female figure in the center, a cup, perhaps for broth, with parsley bushes and bird figures, a small vase with painted decoration of flower garlands connected to "lambrequin" type rosettes; finally, in the display case, a cheese dish of indeterminate Limoges (Paris) manufacture from the 19th century and a jar inscribed with A. di boragine, which refers to the phytomorphic themes of 17th-century Paduan ceramics.

In the center of the display case is a bust, found in the palace's storerooms, depicting Rev. Michele Perrando, brother of Pietro Deo Gratias. The work bears on the back the signature of the renowned sculptor from Savona, Antonio Brilla (1813/1891).

Next to the display case is a splendid eighteenth-century herbarium, on the title page there is a handwritten note: "1770 A.D. 18 May. Herbarium of Me Vincenzo Martini".

Martini, a pharmacist born in Sassello on December 16, 1722, collected on the left pages 174 specimens of medicinal plants, mostly belonging tothe flora of Sassello, while on the right there is a description of the most significantbotanical characteristics and main therapeutic properties, most of them taken from the Herbario Novo (1585) by Castore Durante (1529/1590), a distinguished physician at the Pontifical Court of Pope Sixtus V.

Mauro Mariotti describes its main characteristics in notebook no. 3 of the Centro Culturale Comprensoriale del Sassello - 1982: "170 specific entities including 1 alga, 1 liverwort, 7 pteridophytes and 161 phanerogams belonging to 44 different families, among which the most representative are the Compositae (29) and the Labiatae (21)".

Among the various descriptions, some useful tips such as the one regarding Betony, which was then used to cure almost all diseases and to which miraculous powers were attributed, such as those described by Martini of "guarding the souls and bodies of men from evil spells, defending cemeteries from visions that induce fears and to protect night journeys from dangers".

This herbarium is the oldest among those known in the whole of Liguria and therefore a source of pride for this illustrious and "patient" citizen of Sassello.

Among the furniture: a sofa, a veilleuse, and two triangular fir tables where the shape, of French derivation, is typical of Liguria and Piedmont, and is part of the mid-eighteenth-century production of the barocchetto style. On one of them rests a 19th-century table clock in the Charles X style, generally produced in France and for this reason called "parigine";

In the center of the room, there is a corner gaming table made of fir veneered with Indian walnut and cherry legs; the triangular top can be opened to become square, resting on the central leg which is movable, typical of Genoese Barocchetto production from the mid-18th century. The four chairs surrounding it, made of carved solid walnut and woven Indian cane, are of Piedmontese origin.

Among the paintings on the right is the portrait of the aforementioned Don Pier Maria Perrando; on the left, a portrait of Benedetta Barberis, wife of magistrate Giuseppe (Pippo) Perrando: Camillo Manzitti attributes the painting to Giuseppe Pelizza da Volpedo (1868/1907), while Bartoletti, although defining it as a work of notable quality dating to the end of the 19th century, does not agree on the author; next to it, a large canvas depicting Rebecca and Eleazar, the painting is the work of a master who combines figurative types typical of the production of Giovanni Andrea De Ferrari (Rebecca, the woman bent behind her) and Gioachino Assereto (the group of male figures behind Eleazar), with the stylistic features of Valerio Castello and his followers, thus dating it to the mid-17th century; still of questionable attribution is the next canvas depicting Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the well, previously attributed to Luca Cambiaso (1527/1585), Bartoletti assigns it to an anonymous Genoese artist of the late 16th century; then two more canvases of notable interest: a portrait of St. John the Evangelist, previously considered of the Neapolitan Caravaggesque school, is attributed by Bartoletti to a later imitator of the 17th century; a special mention to the canvas depicting St. Anthony of Padua in ecstasy before the Child Jesus and St. John, attributed to Domenico Piola (1627/1703), judging by the abbreviated mark and the quick, cursive brushstroke, it is perhaps the sketch for an altarpiece, the luminous chromatic palette is indicative of the influences of Gaulli's style and his son-in-law Gregorio De Ferrari, with whom he collaborated starting in 1676 and therefore datable to the 1670s; to the left of the showcase the Apparition

of the Virgin at St. Gaetano di Thiene and the passing of St. Andrew, by Pietro Costa (1760/1798), this is the model for the large altarpiece still visible on the altar of the second chapel on the right in St. Maria del Rimedio in Genoa; according to Alizeri (1866) this was the last work executed by Costa before his death, and the chronology can be limited to after 1795, the year in which he completed two canvases for the parish church of Bonassola; on the right of the display case is the most valuable painting of the Perrando collection, the Crucified Christ with a friar in meditation, attributed by Fausta Marchini Guelfi to Alessandro Magnasco (1667/1749), commissioned by the Perrando family in the first half of the 18th century, it is placed alongside the numerous Crucifixes with friar by the same author.