Closely associated with Antwerp for historic, economic and cultural reasons, Genoa offered the most propitious occasion for a comparison between Flemish still life and the Italian interpretation. A season that was particularly rich in artists and works, favoured by demanding aristocratic art collecting, sprang from this encounter at the beginning of the 17th century. The key artist was Jan Roos of Amsterdam, a pupil of Frans Snyders, who moved to Genoa in 1614 and remained there until his death in 1638. Roos's workshop thus became the reference point for the Genoese stay of other great Flemish masters, among whom were Rubens and Van Dyck: the latter entrusted Roos with inserting still life elements within his paintings. This rich, exuberant northern matrix can be compared with the more meditated Italian tradition, which was linked to Caravaggio-like naturalism. This was the case of Bernardo Strozzi, to whose example is owed a completely recognisable characteristic of Genoese baroque still life: namely, the presence of figures, conceived in direct relationship with inanimate objects such as game, flowers, fruit, fish, recipients, arms. The insertion of personages and a thematic enrichment were frequent in the animated compositions of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (known as "il Grechetto"). Thanks to journeys to Rome and to Mantua, he contributed to making the taste for Genoese still life emerge outside the regional sphere, by proposing it as an interesting alternative for aristocratic art collecting towards the middle of the 17th century.