Ligurian maritime ex-voto in Genoa

It is a devotional object made on a wooden tablet or metal support, often hand-painted. It depicts scenes of the sea: boats, storms, shipwrecks avoided, returns to port. The style is direct, narrative, without idealization. It is created to be hung, not to be observed closely for long.

The maritime ex-voto tells the story of a Genoa that is exposed, vulnerable, and concrete. It is the symbol of a faith born from everyday danger, not from distance. It speaks of sailors, families, departures without guarantees. In this object lives the Genoese idea that devotion is not rhetoric, but a direct response to the experience of the sea.