This thesis explores the generally little-studied history of art in medieval Genoa and the manifestations of Eastern Christian cultures in the city from the late twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. The study is structured in accordance with the main sites that house examples of the city’s ties with the Eastern Mediterranean. Chapter 1 is centred on the Hospitallers’ complex of San Giovanni di Pré and aims to include the frescoes of the lower church in the disputed phenomenon of ‘crusader art’ and overall the complex artistic situation in Europe around the year 1200. Chapter 2 discusses the early arrival of the Carmelites in Genoa and their use of Byzantinising style to validate their ancient origins. Chapter 3 introduces the topic of Genoese self-representation in the religious and civic heart of the commune – the cathedral of San Lorenzo and analyses the frescoes produced by a Byzantine painter at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Chapter 4 continues to investigate the formation of the Genoese identity, this time through the role of the relics and precious objects from the East that were preserved in the cathedral. Chapter 5 is devoted to the decoration of the canons’ cloister of the cathedral, which has sometimes been described as of Eastern influence. Although several details of the decoration resemble widespread examples of Byzantine and Byzantine-influenced iconography, I contest that it instead reveals certain connections with contemporary Roman art, possibly, through the network of the Fieschi family. Chapter 6 sheds light on various aspects of Armenian presence in Genoa, challenges the theory of the Fieschi’s special involvement in this process, and describes the arrival of Armenian monks from Cilicia at the turn of the fourteenth century. Chapter 7 presents the first study in western scholarship of MS. VЗ–834 from the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, which was produced in Genoa in the monastery of San Bartolomeo degli Armeni in 1325. Finally, Chapter 8 is devoted to the Mandylion, and the reasons why it was donated to the Bartholomites and not transferred to the cathedral, in the context of the perception of earlier relics from the East.

As a result, the thesis reveals that the Genoese had a very selective approach to the adaptation of Eastern Christian imagery. Their city was not overwhelmed with Eastern visual elements, but at the same time these elements formed part of the international character of Genoese culture.