The supreme quality of paintings from what were known as the Low Countries has always been the main reason for their success in Italy. But another factor contributing to the centuries-old Italian tradition of collecting and commissioning Flemish and Dutch paintings is the trips to Italy made by so many northern artists. Here they assimilated elements of the ‘Italian manner,’ while bringing with them their own northern artistic background. They worked for the Church and the great Roman aristocratic families or in the service of rulers like the Montefeltro, Gonzaga, Farnese, Medici and Savoy courts and their courtiers, or for the patricians of Genoa, Venice, etc. The interest of collectors in Flemish and Dutch art continues to our day. This exhibition presents the most recent phase of a phenomenon that bridges the centuries; as a result, after Belgium and Holland, Italy is the nation that probably possesses the greatest number of Flemish and Dutch paintings in the world.