Galleria Rizzi

About the museum

The history of the Galleria Rizzi begins in 1897, when the district doctor Vittorio Rizzi, who had moved from Piacenza to Sestri Levante, came home with a painting he had bought on one of his rounds of house calls. From then on he collected paintings, largely from the noble families of Piacenza, and later also furniture, drawings, prints and ceramics, above all from Liguria: from Savona and Albisola.

After Vittorio's death in 1916, his sons Ferdinando and Marcello inherited the collection and their taste for eclectic collecting. They enriched it with objects from the villa of the marquises Balbi di Sestri, where the holdings of Genoese families such as the Brignole, Durazzo, Grillo and Fieschi had accumulated, and with contributions from Florence. When the lawyer Marcello Rizzi died in 1960, he left the entire collection to the State, so that a private foundation named after the family could be set up with the aim of establishing a public museum.

The State accepted the bequest in 1970, although the collection had already been open to the public since 1967. The present arrangement, begun in 1990 and completed in 1996, displays the paintings in chronological order and by school (Genoese, Lombard, Emilian, Venetian, Tuscan) on the second and third floors. The first floor, by contrast, is furnished as a rich middle-class home between the 19th and early 20th centuries, with furniture, ceramics, prints and art books.

Among the best-known works are the Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John, from the circle of Verrocchio, the Madonna of the Candelabra from the workshop of Rossellino, Carlo Dolci's Judith, and one of the few original copies of Amos Nattini's monumental Divine Comedy (1921–1941).

Highlights

• Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John, circle of Andrea Verrocchio
• Madonna of the Candelabra, workshop of Antonio Rossellino
• Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Carlo Dolci
• Monumental Divine Comedy by Amos Nattini
• First floor furnished as an early 20th-century middle-class home
• Location on the Baia del Silenzio

Founded

1967

Operated by

Fondazione Galleria Rizzi

Admission & discounts

Showing your Galleria ticket gives a discount on admission to the MuSel – Archaeological and City Museum (Palazzo Fascie, Sestri Levante).

Accessibility

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Kids & families

• Family tours & workshops

Educational workshops for school classes and visits with the museum's guides.

Getting there & parking

Amenities & dining

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Events & venue rental

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