Summary

Andrea Mantegna (Isola di Carturo, 1431 - Mantua, September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, engraver and miniaturist, a citizen of the Republic of Venice.

He trained in the Paduan workshop of Squarcione, where he developed a taste for archaeological citation; he came into contact with the innovations of the Tuscans passing through the city such as Filippo Lippi, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno and, above all, Donatello, from whom he learned a precise application of perspective. In fact, Mantegna distinguished himself by his perfect spatial layout, his taste for sharply delineated drawing and the monumental form of the figures.

Contact with the works of Piero della Francesca, which took place in Ferrara, marked his achievements on perspective study even more, so much so that he reached "illusionistic" levels that would be typical of all northern Italian painting. Also in Ferrara, he was able to become acquainted with the patheticism of Rogier van der Weyden's works traceable in his devotional painting; through his acquaintance with the works of Giovanni Bellini, whose sister Nicolosia he married, the forms of his characters softened, without losing monumentality, and were placed in more airy settings. Constant throughout his production was the dialogue with statuary, both coeval and classical. Mantegna was the first great "classicist" in painting. His art can be called a relevant example of archaeological classicism.

Origins

Andrea Mantegna was born in 1431 to Biagio, a carpenter. His birthplace was Isola di Carturo (now called Isola Mantegna), a village near Padua, but which at the time was under the Vicentine county. The few records of his origins describe him as being "of very humble lineage." As a very young man Andrea is known to have been a cattle guard in the countryside around his village.

Training in Padua

Very young, as early as 1441 he is mentioned in Paduan documents as an apprentice and adopted son of Squarcione; around 1442 he enrolled in the Paduan fraglia of painters, with the appellation "fiiulo" (son) of Squarcione. The move was undoubtedly facilitated by the presence in the city of Tommaso Mantegna, Andrea's older brother, who had made a decent fortune as a tailor and lived in the contrada Santa Lucia, where Andrea also lived. Subsequently, the painter began to live at Squarcione's workshop, working exclusively for his adoptive father, who by the expedient of "affiliation" was wont to secure faithful and cheap labor.

According to Squarcione's contracts with his pupils, in his workshop he undertook to teach: perspective construction, presentation of models, composition of characters and objects, proportioning of the human figure, and more. Probably his method of teaching consisted of having ancient fragments, drawings and paintings from various parts of Italy, especially from Tuscany and Rome, copied from his collection, as Vasari says in the life of Mantegna: "he exercised him much in things of plaster formed from ancient statues, et in pictures of paintings, which in canvas he had come from various places, and particularly from Tuscany and Rome." Nothing is known about this collection, but it can be assumed that it included medals, statuettes, ancient inscriptions, plaster casts, and a few pieces of statuary perhaps directly from Greece (where the master may have traveled in person in the 1920s), all fragmentary works that were taken individually for their vigor, decontextualizing them and placing them back together arbitrarily.

In Padua, Mantegna also found a lively humanistic climate and was able to receive a classical education, which he enriched by direct observation of classical works, the Paduan works of Donatello (in the city from 1443 to 1453) and the practice of drawing with Florentine (decisive and sure stroke) and German (tendency toward sculptural representation) influences. Sensitivity to the classical world and antiquarian taste soon became one of the fundamental components of his artistic language, which he carried with him throughout his career.

In 1447 he visited Venice with Squarcione.

Independence

Mantegna's stay at Squarcione's workshop lasted six years. In 1448 he finally freed himself from the guardianship of his adoptive father, even filing a lawsuit against him, seeking monetary compensation for the works he executed on behalf of the master.

In that same year he devoted himself to a first independent work: the altarpiece, which was destroyed in the 17th century, intended for the high altar of the church of St. Sophia. It was a Madonna and Child in sacred conversation among saints, probably inspired by Donatello's basilica del Santo altarpiece. From those early years we have received a St. Mark, signed and dated 1448, and a St. Jerome, of which some studies on paper also remain.

Ovetari Chapel, first phase

Also from 1448 is the signing of the contract by his brother Tommaso Mantegna, as Andrea's still "minor" guardian, for the decoration of the Ovetari family chapel in the Church of the Eremitani in Padua. The work, partly destroyed during World War II, was entrusted to a heterogeneous team of painters, where gradually Mantegna's personality stood out, capable also of refining his own technique. He began, then, to paint segments of the apse basin, where he left three figures of saints, inspired by those of Andrea del Castagno in the Venetian church of San Zaccaria. Later he probably devoted himself to the lunette of the left wall, with the Vocation of Saints James and John and the Preaching of Saint James, completed by 1450, and then moved on to the middle register. In the lunette the perspective still showed some uncertainty, while in the two scenes below it now appears well dominated. The point of view, central in the upper register, is lowered in the scenes below and unifies the space of the two episodes, with the vanishing point of both scenes set on the painted central pillar. Elements taken from antiquity increase in the later scenes, such as the majestic triumphal arch that occupies two-thirds of the Judgment, to which should be added medallions, pilasters, figured reliefs, and inscriptions in capital letters, probably derived from the example of the drawing albums of Jacopo Bellini, the father of Gentile and Giovanni. The classical armor, costumes, and architecture, unlike the "squarcionesque" painters, were not mere decorations of scholarly flavor, but contributed to providing a true historical reconstruction of events. The intention to recreate the monumentality of the ancient world goes so far as to give the human figures a certain rigidity, which made them look like statues.

In 1449 the first disagreements arose between Mantegna and Nicolò Pizzolo, with the former being sued by the latter because of continued interference in the execution of the chapel altarpiece. This led to a redistribution by the patrons of the work among the artists. Probably because of these disagreements Mantegna suspended his work and visited Ferrara. In any case, the building site came to a halt in 1451 due to lack of funds.

In Ferrara

His commitment to the Ovetari Chapel did not prevent the painter from accepting other assignments as well, so in May 1449, taking advantage of a stalemate, he went to Ferrara, in the service of Leonello d'Este.

Here he produced a lost work consisting of a double portrait, perhaps a diptych, depicting Leonello on one side and his chamberlain Folco di Villafora on the other. It is not certain how long the painter stayed at the Ferrara court, however, it is undisputed that here he had the opportunity to see paintings by Piero della Francesca and the Flemish artists the duke collected. Perhaps he met Rogier van der Weyden himself, who was in Italy that same year, also stopping at the Este court.

In 1450-1451 Mantegna returned to Ferrara, in the service of Borso d'Este, for whom he painted an Adoration of the Shepherds, where we can already discern a greater attention to the naturalistic rendering of reality derived from the Flemish example.

Ovetari Chapel, second phase

On July 21, 1452, Mantegna finished in Padua the lunette for the main portal of the Basilica del Santo with the Monogram of Christ between Saints Anthony of Padua and Bernardine, now in the Antonian Museum. In this work he experimented for the first time with foreshortening from below upward, which he later applied in the remaining frescoes at the Eremitani.

Work on the Ovetari Chapel was resumed in November 1453 and completed in 1457. In this second phase only Mantegna was the protagonist, partly due to the death of Nicolò Pizzolo (1453), who completed the Stories of St. James, frescoed the central wall with the Assumption of the Virgin, and finally devoted himself to completing the lower register of the Stories of St. Christopher, begun by Bono da Ferrara and Ansuino da Forlì, where he produced two unified scenes: the Martyrdom and Transport of the Beheaded Body of St. Christopher, the most ambitious of the entire cycle. Discussed turns out to be the relationship with Ansuino, who, if for some would have been influenced by Mantegna, for others would have been rather a precursor of him.

In 1457 Empress Ovetari filed a lawsuit against Mantegna because he had painted only eight apostles instead of twelve in the fresco of the Assumption. Painters Pietro da Milano and Giovanni Storlato were called to give an opinion, and they justified Mantegna's choice because of the lack of space.

Looser than the Stories of St. James appears the episode of the Martyrdom of St. Christopher, immediately following, where the architecture has already acquired the illusionistic trait that was one of the basic characteristics of all Mantegna's production. Indeed, a loggia seems to open in the wall, where the martyrdom scene is set, with a more airy setting and buildings drawn not only from the classical world. The figures, also drawn from everyday observation, are looser and more psychologically individuated, with softer forms, suggesting the influence of Venetian painting, particularly Giovanni Bellini, whose sister Nicolosia Mantegna married in 1454, after all.

Polyptych of St. Luke

During the nine years of his work at the Ovetari Chapel, Mantegna's unmistakable style took shape, making him immediately famous and making him one of the most appreciated artists of his time. Despite his commitment to the Eremitani, in those years Mantegna also implied other commissions, some of them substantial.

From 1453-1454 is the Polyptych of St. Luke for the chapel of St. Luke in the basilica of Santa Giustina in Padua, now in the Brera picture gallery. The polyptych consists of twelve compartments organized on two registers.

The altarpiece blends archaic elements, such as the gold background and the different proportions between the figures, and innovative elements, such as the spatial perspective unification in the polychrome marble step that serves as the base for the saints in the lower register and the foreshortened view from below of the figures in the upper register, which are extremely solid and monumental, and with the original frame (lost) were meant to give the idea of looking out from an arched loggia, set high above the viewer's vantage point. The figures have sharp outlines, highlighted by the almost metallic brilliance of the colors.

Also from 1454 is the panel with Saint Euphemia at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. The painting has a similar setting to the Assumption of the Virgin at the Ovetari Chapel, with the saint of monumental figure, given by the foreshortened view from below, and framed in an arch of firm perspective rigor, with festoons of Squarcionesque derivation.

The Blessing Child of Washington is then dated to 1455-1460.

The San Zeno Altarpiece

The San Zeno Altarpiece for the chancel of the church of San Zeno in Verona was commissioned by Gregorio Correr, abbot of the church, in 1456 and executed between 1457 and 1459. It is the first fully Renaissance altarpiece painted in northern Italy, from where a fruitful school of Verona painters emerged: one among many fine examples was Girolamo dai Libri.

The frame only in appearance divides the altarpiece into a triptych: in fact the real frame is illusively continued by the portico, bordered by columns, in which the Sacred Conversation is enclosed; Mantegna also had a window opened in the church that illuminated the altarpiece from the right so that the real lighting would coincide with the painted lighting. Indeed, the architectures acquired the illusionistic trait that was one of the basic characteristics of all Mantegna's production. The lowered point of view intensifies the monumentality of the figures and increases the involvement of the viewer, who is also called in by the direct gaze of St. Peter. The figures, with poses also drawn from everyday observation, are looser and more psychologically individuated, with softer forms suggesting the influence of Venetian painting, particularly Giovanni Bellini. In the perspective drawing of the sacred conversation, the vanishing point is at the base of the central panel, between the two musician angels.

The predella includes the three scenes with Oration in the Garden and Resurrection (preserved in Tours) and Crucifixion (preserved in the Louvre).

Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini

From his beginnings in Squarcione's workshop, Mantegna had repeated contacts with the Venetian workshop of Jacopo Bellini, among the last exponents of the late Gothic culture that precisely in those years was pursuing an update in a Renaissance sense by beginning to use perspective and who shared with Andrea a taste for archaeological citation.

Assessing the great potential of the young Paduan, Bellini matured the decision to give him his only daughter Nicolosia in marriage in 1453. From then on, relations between Mantegna and the Venetian painters became closer, especially with his brother-in-law of the same age, Giovanni Bellini. The dialogue between the two, particularly intense during the 1950s, was expressed in the admiration and desire for emulation of Bellini, who learned from his brother-in-law the lessons of Donatello and often reproduced works derived from his (such as the Oration in the Garden or the Presentation in the Temple). Mantegna himself borrowed from Bellini a greater fluency and psychological individuation for the characters, as well as a more fluid fusion of color and light.

As Giovanni reached full awareness of his artistic gifts, Mantegna's influences gradually faded (as did those of his father and brother Gentile).

Toward Mantua

To 1456 dates the first letter from Ludovico Gonzaga requesting Andrea as court painter, after the departure of Pisanello, perhaps the previous appointee. Gonzaga was a typical humanist and condottiere prince, educated in childhood by Vittorino da Feltre, who had introduced him to Roman history, poetry, mathematics, and astrology. It is therefore not surprising that the marquis insisted on requesting the services of Mantegna, who at the time was the artist who most sought to revive the classical world in his works. The renewal program promoted by Gonzaga had a broader scope and also involved other artists in those same years, such as Leon Battista Alberti and Luca Fancelli.

In 1457 the marquis officially invited Andrea to move to Mantua, and the painter expressed interest, although commitments already made in Padua (such as the San Zeno Altarpiece and other works) caused his departure to be delayed for another three years. There were probably also personal reasons for the delay: he must have been well aware that by moving to court his life as a man and as an artist would change radically, guaranteeing him, yes, considerable economic peace of mind and stability, but also depriving him of his freedom and distancing him from that lively milieu of Paduan nobles and humanists in which he was so highly esteemed.

Between 1457 and 1459 he executed St. Sebastian, now preserved in Vienna, which Roberto Longhi, emphasizing the fine calligraphy, dated to about 1470.

In 1458 Mantegna and some assistants appeared to be intent on frescoing the ducal residences of Cavriana and Goito, which was followed a few years later by a Homeric cycle in the palace of Revere (1463-1464). Nothing remains of these cycles. Some have discerned an echo of them in engravings by the master or his circle, such as the two Bacchanals (Bacchanal with Silenus in Chatsworth, collections of the Duke of Devonshire and Chatsworth, and Bacchanal with a Vat in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) and the Zuffa of Sea Gods, also in Chatsworth.

Court painter in Mantua

In 1460 Mantegna moved with his entire family to Mantua as official court painter, but also as artistic adviser and curator of art collections. Here he obtained a fixed salary, housing, and the honor of a heraldic coat of arms with the motto "par un désir," living at the Gonzaga court until his death.

Among the earliest works the artist put his hand to were a series of portraits, a typical production of court painters, commissioned both by the marquis and by a number of nobles and powerful people in close relationship with the court. The Portrait of Cardinal Ludovico Trevisan (1459-1460) and the Portrait of Francesco Gonzaga (c. 1461) stand out.

The chapel of the castle of St. George

The first official commission Ludovico III Gonzaga gave Mantegna, even before his final move, was to decorate the chapel in the castle of San Giorgio. This was the private chapel in the 14th-century castle that the marquis had elected as his residence and which is now a wing of the Ducal Palace. Architectural work on the chapel had begun in 1459, as part of a self-celebratory project for the Council of Mantua (May 27, 1459-January 19, 1460), and had been carried out according to Mantegna's own advice, as shown in a letter from the marquis to Mantegna, dated May 4, 1459. The small room, remade and redecorated in the 16th century when its decorations were by then dispersed, was covered by a small dome with a lantern, where some windows opened.

As far as pictorial decoration is concerned, Mantegna painted a large altarpiece, the Death of the Virgin, now in the Prado, which had an elongated form, originally endowed with an upper part, sawn off at an unspecified time, of which the tablet of Christ with the animula of the Madonna has been recognized as forming part of the cusp (Ferrara, National Picture Gallery). Of great illusionism is the presence of the painted view of the lake of the Mincio and the bridge of San Giorgio, which really was visible from the windows of the castle, and which Mantegna also later included in the Bridal Chamber.

Also possibly part of the same decoration are the three panels of the Uffizi triptych (Ascension, Adoration of the Magi and Circumcision), which were arbitrarily associated into a single work in the 19th century. However, they could also be a work made between 1466 and 1467 during two stays in Florence. Also possibly referencing that decorative project are the three engravings with the Deposition from the Cross, the Deposition in the Tomb, and the Descent into Limbo.

On September 23 and 24, 1464, Andrea Mantegna, the painter Samuele da Tradate, Felice Feliciano, a copyist and antiquarian, and Giovanni Marcanova, a hydraulic engineer, made a boat trip on Lake Garda. It was a veritable archaeological expedition in search of ancient epigraphs, which well documents the passion for collecting antiquities of Mantegna and the group of humanists close to him. They also tried to ritually emulate the classical world: crowned with garlands of myrtle and ivy, they sang accompanied by the lute and invoked the memory of Marcus Aurelius, who was represented by the imperator Samuel, while Andrew and John were the consules. At the end of the outing they visited the temple of the Blessed Virgin in Garda, to whom they gave thanks.

The Bridal Chamber

In 1465 Mantegna began one of his most complex decorative undertakings, to which his fame is linked. This was the so-called Bridal Chamber, called in accounts of the time the "Camera Picta," or "painted room," completed in 1474. The small-to-medium sized room occupies the second floor of the northeastern tower of the castle of San Giorgio and had the dual function of an audience room (where the marquis transacted public business) and a representative bedroom, where Ludovico gathered with family members.

Mantegna studied a fresco decoration that invested all the walls and the ceiling vaults, adapting to the architectural limits of the room, but at the same time illusionistically breaking through the walls with painting, which creates a dilated space far beyond the physical limits of the room. A connecting motif between the scenes on the walls is the faux marble plinth that runs all around in the lower band, on which the pillars that subdivide the scenes rest. Some frescoed brocade curtains reveal the main scenes, which seem to unfold beyond an arcade. The vaulting is frescoed as if it were spheroidal and centrally features an oculus, from which protrude maidens, putti, a peacock and a vase, silhouetted against the blue sky.

The overall theme is an extraordinary political-dynastic celebration of the entire Gonzaga family, with the occasion being the celebration of Francesco Gonzaga's election as cardinal. On the north wall is portrayed the moment when Ludovico receives the news of the election: great is the attention to detail, verisimilitude, and the exaltation of the luxury of the court. On the west wall is depicted the meeting, which took place near the town of Bozzolo, between the marquis and his cardinal son; the scene has a certain fixity, determined by the static nature of the characters portrayed in profile or in three-quarter view to emphasize the importance of the moment; in the background is an idealized Rome, as a wish for the cardinal.

As a reward for the execution of the work, Ludovico Gonzaga in 1476 gave the master the land on which he built his own house, known to this day as Casa del Mantegna.

An important cycle of frescoes attributed to Mantegna was found during the restoration of the Market House.

Travel in Tuscany

During the lengthy work on the Bridal Chamber, which was conducted with particular slowness, as the 1984-1987 restoration also showed, Mantegna perhaps worked on other works as well, but their consistency and identification is particularly difficult, due to the lack of documentation. It is known that in 1466 Mantegna was in Florence and Siena and that in 1467 he returned to Tuscany again. The only work referring to these trips is perhaps the Portrait of Carlo de' Medici, which some, however, assume dates from the Council of Mantua.

Under Federico I Gonzaga

In June 1478 Marquis Ludovico disappeared and was succeeded by his son Federico, who would reign for six years. Mantegna, though often distressed by financial straits, was well aware of the high rank he occupied at court and was eager for public recognition of his fame, stubbornly seeking a title. In 1469 Emperor Frederick III was in Ferrara, where Mantegna personally went to be honored as count palatine. It is not clear whether or not he got what he wanted, because he did not use that title until after his stay in Rome.

The greatest rewards, however, he obtained from his benefactor marquises. In 1484 he was awarded the prestigious title of knight.

Perhaps a few years after the Mantua enterprise dates the decoration of the marquis residence of Bondanello (perhaps in 1478), where two rooms were frescoed, completely lost with the destruction of the building in the 18th century. Archival clues have suggested that the engraving with the Zuffa di dei marini may have been related to this enterprise.

In this period Mantegna's activity was dense with tasks arising from court service (miniatures, tapestries, goldsmithing and chests, which were often created to his design), to which must be added the decorations arising from the Gonzaga's building eagerness, where the master had to supervise numerous workers. Among the few paintings that have come down to us from this period, some place the famous Cristo morto (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera), the proposed dates of which, however, fluctuate on the whole between the end of the Paduan period and 1501 and later, thus a very wide period. The perspective framing of the body of Christ seen in a steep foreshortening is famous, not least for the illusion that the redeemer "follows" the viewer in every movement, according to an illusory criterion that is akin to that of the Oculus in the Bridal Chamber and that almost eclipses, with its mind-boggling character, the other expressive values of the work.

In about 1480 he made the Saint Sebastian, now in the Louvre, probably on the occasion of the wedding the following year between Chiara Gonzaga and Gilbert de Bourbon-Montpensier and intended for the church of Aigueperse en Auvergne, where he arrived in 1481.

An example of how Mantegna was esteemed and in demand by the greats of his time is evidenced by his relationship with Lorenzo the Magnificent, de facto lord of Florence. In 1481 Andrea sent him a painting, and in 1483 Lorenzo visited his studio, admiring his works as well as his personal collection of busts and antique objects.

Under Francesco II Gonzaga

Federico Gonzaga's marquisate was relatively short, and he was succeeded by his 18-year-old son Francesco, in power until 1519. The young heir, unlike his predecessors, did not have art and literature among his primary interests, preferring rather to carry on the family's military tradition, becoming a noted condottiere. Among his favorite pastimes were jousting and tournaments, as well as keeping stables famous for their horses.

Francis was, however, far from a stranger to patronage, continuing the work of his predecessors in terms of creating new architecture and carrying out large decorative cycles, although the greater the connection of these commissions with his military exploits, so much so that the Ferrarese poet Ercole Strozzi called him the "new Caesar."

It was in this climate that Mantegna began the creation of the Trionfi, one of the most celebrated works of the time, which occupied the artist from about 1485 until his death.

Caesar's Triumphs

The ambitious project of Caesar's Triumphs, nine monumental canvases that recreated the triumphal painting of Ancient Rome, now housed in the Royal Palace at Hampton Court in London, was begun around 1485, still in work in 1492, made public in part in 1501 and completed by 1505. Of a tenth "Triumph" called the Senators only a print derived from the preparatory cartoon exists. Inspired by ancient and modern sources and rare depictions on sarcophagi and various reliefs, Mantegna recreated the triumphal procession, which was originally intended to appear, through special frames, as one long scene that was viewed as if through a loggia. The result was a heroic exaltation of a lost world, with a solemnity no less than that of the Bridal Chamber, but more moving, compelling, and topical.

After the master's death, Francis II assigned the canvases to a long gallery in the San Sebastiano palace, which he had just had built, probably using a series of carved and gilded pillars to frame them, examples of which remain in the Ducal Palace. The cycle immediately became one of the Gonzaga city's most admired treasures, celebrated by ambassadors and passing visitors. By 1626 seven of the canvases had been moved to the Ducal Palace, with two by Lorenzo Costa. Vasari saw them and described them as "the best thing he ever worked on."

The Roman sojourn

In 1487 Pope Innocent VIII wrote to Francesco Gonzaga begging him to send Mantegna to Rome, as he intended to entrust him with the decoration of the chapel of the new Belvedere building in the Vatican. The master left in 1488, with a presentation from the marquis dated June 10, 1488.

Shortly before leaving Mantua Andrea perhaps provided the indications and drawings for four fresco tondi (Ascension, Saints Andrew and Longinus-dated 1488-Deposition and Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John) intended for the atrium of the church of Sant'Andrea, which were found in poor condition in 1915 under a neoclassical plaster that replicated them. After restoration in 1961 the Ascension was attributed to Mantegna and the others to his circle or Correggio. More recent critics, however, have accepted as by the master only the sinopia of the Ascension.

On January 31, 1489, Mantegna was in Rome and wrote to the marquis of Mantua to commend himself on the preservation of the Triumphs of Caesar, while in another letter of the same year, dated June 15, the master described the work in progress, which concerned a lost chapel, adding, to amuse His Excellency, amusing news about the Roman court, with a gaiety that contrasts with the traditional image of the man shrouded in an aura of frowning classicism. Mantegna, accustomed to leading a comfortable life and receiving gifts and honors, resented the Spartan treatment he received at the Vatican, which over the course of two years only compensated him for his expenses.

Old descriptions of the chapel, which contained the Stories of John the Baptist and the Infancy of Christ, recall the "amenissime" views of towns and villages, the faux marble and faux architectural framework, with cupola, festoons, cherubs, allegories of Virtues, isolated figures of saints, a portrait of the commissioning pope and a dedicatory plaque dated 1490. Vasari wrote that those paintings "seem a thing illuminated."

Vasari also dates the attribution to the Roman period of the Madonna delle Cave, now in the Uffizi, where the transition between light and shadow in the right and left passages of the central figures, respectively, has been interpreted as an allegory of Redemption. Also often associated with this panel is the Christ in Pieta supported by two Copenhagen angels due to the presence as well of quarrymen in the background; others attribute it to the immediately later period (1490-1500).

In 1490 the artist returned to Mantua. Controversial was Mantegna's relationship with the antiquities of the eternal city: although he was the painter who more than any other had shown interest in the classical world, the ruins of ancient Rome seemed to leave him indifferent; he did not mention them in his letters and they did not appear in his later pictorial production.

1990s

Back in Mantua, the artist devoted himself first and foremost to the continuation of the Trionfi series. Despite the vastness and ambition of the work, Mantegna worked hard on many other commissions, and the numerous reminder letters he received from patrons and patrons are a testament to the requests he obtained, far beyond his means.

Under his guidance, between 1491 and 1494, various painters frescoed in the Marquis residence in Marmirolo (also destroyed), some rooms, known as "of the Horses," "of the World Map," "of the Cities," and "Greek." In the latter there were views of Constantinople and other Levantine cities, with interiors of mosques, baths and other various Turkishness. Also in Marmirolo was a lost series of other Triumphs, perhaps those of Petrarch or more likely Alexander the Great. These works, transported to Mantua in 1506 to serve as a backdrop for a play, have sometimes been confused with Caesar's Triumphs, further complicating the tangled historical reconstruction of the canvases now in London.

The monochromes with biblical subjects, housed in the Cincinnati Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, Vienna, the Louvre, and the National Gallery in London, possibly date from 1490-1500.

In these years, a number of works that share technical affinities, such as the subtle spreading of tempera that allows the grain of the canvas to show through, are grouped together by historians. Among the Madonnas with Child, the oldest is perhaps the Poldi Pezzoli Madonna, akin to the Butler Madonna (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) and the Carrara Academy Madonna.

Our Lady of Victory

For Francis II's victory at the Battle of Fornovo (1495), which temporarily drove the French out of Italy, Mantegna was commissioned to paint the large altarpiece known as the Madonna della Vittoria as an ex voto, completed in 1496 and destined for the specially erected church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. The painting was charged to a Mantuan Jew, Daniele da Norsa, who was guilty of removing an image of the Virgin from the facade of his house and replacing it with his coat of arms. The marquis himself was depicted kneeling at the foot of the Virgin's throne, smiling and receiving her blessing. The altarpiece, now in the Louvre, is characterized by a decorative exuberance reminiscent of works from the Paduan and early Mantuan periods, with a profusion of marbles, frames, festoons of fruit, strings of glass and coral, birds, and faux bas-reliefs.

Our Lady of Victory has affinities with some groups of Holy Families, typical of the production of this period, such as the one in the Kimbell Art Museum and the one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Pala Trivulzio

The other major work from this period is the Trivulzio Altarpiece (1497), formerly intended for the high altar of the church of Santa Maria in Organo in Verona and now in the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco in Milan.

The Studiolo of Isabella d'Este

Isabella d'Este, unanimously regarded as one of the most cultured women of the Renaissance, arrived in Mantua as the bride of Francesco Gonzaga in 1490. She brought with her a retinue of Ferrarese artists from her hometown, and Mantegna was immediately concerned with winning the young marquise's favor, getting her tutor Battista Guarino's recommendation.

Isabella, who deepened her cultural interests in Mantua and also ruled the state when her husband was at war, had a somewhat controversial relationship with Mantegna. Although she showed appreciation for his talents, she felt that he was not sufficiently good at portraits, seeking in this to avail himself of other artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci.

Isabella's indefatigable and irrepressible activity as a collector of works of art, gems, statues and objects of value, which through her agents she sought out all over Europe, culminated in the creation of a studiolo in the castle of San Giorgio, a private setting inspired by those of Urbino and Gubbio, which she had had the opportunity to see in the company of her affectionate sister-in-law Elisabetta Gonzaga, married Montefeltro. To embellish this environment, the only one of its kind belonging to a woman, he commissioned various works of art with mythological, allegorical and erudite themes, often making use of Mantegna himself. In the two canvases of Parnassus (1497) and the so-called Triumph of Virtue (1499-1502) the artist experimented with compositions rich in characters, with complex allegorical readings. a third canvas Isabella d'Este in the Kingdom of Harmony was designed by Mantegna and completed, due to his death, by Lorenzo Costa.

In these works, the binding subject matter decided by the marquise's advisers, such as Paride da Ceresara, weighed heavily, which put other artists called upon by Isabella in a difficult position, such as Perugino, whose work was not considered satisfactory, and Giovanni Bellini, who went so far as to decline the commission.

To meet the marquise's tastes, Mantegna updated his style, adhering to a certain colorism that then dominated the art scene in Italy, and softening some of the features of his art, with more elaborate poses of the figures, dynamism and complicated landscape views.

The grisailles

From about 1495 Mantegna began a prolific production of paintings of biblical subjects in grisaille, that is, imitating monochrome sculpture. He also probably compared himself to the production of sculptors such as Lombardo or Antico.

Some have attributed to Mantegna a fresco of some coats of arms, surrounded by satyrs, dolphins, and ram's heads in grisaille, on a faux-marble background, bearing the date in Roman letters 1504. Discovered in Feltre during restoration work in the ancient Bishopric in 2006, it was painted for local saint and bishop Antonio Pizzamano.

The extreme production

Mantegna's extreme production is that of 1505-1506, linked to works with a bitter and melancholy flavor, united by a different style, linked to brown tones and an innovative use of light and movement. Attributed to this phase are the two canvases destined for his burial chapel in the basilica of St. Andrew, the Baptism of Christ and the Holy Family with the family of John the Baptist, and the bitter St. Sebastian, where a scroll reflects on the transience of life.

Death

On September 13, 1506, Andrea Mantegna died at the age of 75. The last period of his life was beset by pressing economic difficulties and an increasingly melancholy view of his role as an artist, now undermined by new generations who were proposing a softer, more appealing classicism.

The master's passing generated many attestations of esteem and regret, among which remains that of Albrecht Dürer, who declared that he felt "the greatest sorrow of his life." In fact, the German master was in Venice and had planned a trip to Mantua specifically to meet his much esteemed colleague.

Admiration for his figure did not, however, generally translate into an artistic following, his austere and vigorous art having by then been considered outdated by the pressing innovations of the turn of the century, which were considered better suited to express the motions of the soul at that time. Perhaps the only, great master to follow echoes of Mantegna in the powerful illusionism of the paintings was Correggio, who worked in his youth in Mantua itself, decorating the artist's funeral chapel in Sant'Andrea.

Mantegna married Nicolosia Bellini, daughter of the famous painter Jacopo Bellini and sister of the painters Gentile and Giovanni. After the death of his first wife, he remarried a woman from the Nuvolosi family. Andrea Mantegna had numerous children:

He also had a natural son, Giovanni Andrea (?-1493), also a painter.

The heraldic coat of arms granted to Andrea Mantegna by the Marquis of Mantua Ludovico Gonzaga is blazoned:Split: in I silver to a meridian sun (placed in the head) radiate gold with cartouche (in II banded gold and black with four pieces. Or: Truncated semipartite: in the first azure to a gold five-pointed crown crossed by two green fronds, placed in the cross of St. Andrew; in the second silver to a red sun with a fluttering cartouche between the rays charged with the motto "par un desir"; in the third banded gold and black four pieces. The fasciato of gold and black that forms the lower part of the coat of arms originates from the insignia that Luigi Gonzaga, raised in 1328 when he took power in Mantua by driving out the Bonacolsi.

A number of presumed self-portraits are known of Mantegna: the earliest are in the Ovetari Chapel and consist of a figure in the Judgment of St. James (the first on the left) and in a gigantic head in the archway, which was a pendant to that of his colleague Nicolò Pizzolo; a third is perhaps in the medallion to the right of the pulpit in the Preaching of St. James. Another youthful self-portrait is indicated in the figure and right of the sacred group in the Presentation in the Temple; two are then found cleverly concealed in the Bridal Chamber, in a grisaille mask and in a vaporous cloud, where a male profile resembling the figure in the Presentation is barely visible.

A lost portrait of elderly Mantegna was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci during his stay in Mantua between 1499 and 1500. Some supposed derivations of the work are known, such as an engraving by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia, preserved in the British Museum and depicting a man with a headdress.

The best-known portrait of Mantegna, however, is the one effigyed in the bronze clipeate bust placed at the entrance to his funeral chapel in the Basilica of Sant'Andrea in Mantua (attributed to Gian Marco Cavalli), where he still rests today, to which the engraver who edited the 1558 edition of Giorgio Vasari's Lives, for example, drew inspiration. This is an ideal portrait that echoes the Roman model of the intellectual crowned with laurel, but it also has a certain physiognomic depth, portraying the painter in his fifties and characterizing him with a noble and austere expression.

In the Bridal Chamber Mantegna also probably painted his self-portrait, hidden among the foliage of the decorations.

Paintings

For this series of engravings, the dating of which is estimated to be around the year 1475, i.e., after the start of work on the decoration of the chapel of the castle of San Giorgio in Mantua from which they are inspired for some motifs, scholar Suzanne Boorsch suggests Gian Marco Cavalli, as executor, according to the contract established on April 5, 1475 with Mantegna:

Sculpture

The constant references with sculpture in Mantegna's work have given rise to multiple hypotheses about his possible parallel activity as a sculptor. It is not inconceivable that during his apprenticeship he devoted himself to modeling with plaster, as was customary in Squarcione's workshop. The only example noted is the Statue of St. Euphemia present in the church of the same name in Irsina, in the province of Matera (Basilicata).

Mantegna Tarot

For a long time, Mantegna was credited with the authorship of a series of 50 engravings, known as the "Mantegna Tarot," one of the earliest expressions of Italian engraving art, which despite their name do not actually constitute a deck of actual tarot cards, but were probably a teaching tool illustrating the conception of the medieval cosmos.

Sources

1. Andrea Mantegna
2. Andrea Mantegna
3. ^ Busto di Andrea Mantegna, su it.wahooart.com. URL consultato il 9 gennaio 2023.
4. ^ Scultura - Busto di Andrea Mantegna - Andrea Mantegna (attribuito) - Mantova -, su lombardiabeniculturali.it. URL consultato il 9 gennaio 2023.
5. ^ Riproduzioni fotografiche ...: Liguria, Piemonte, Lombardia, Alpi marittime e canton Ticino. Fratelli Alinari, 1913, su google.it. URL consultato il 9 gennaio 2023.
6. ^ Toffanello.
7. Plus rarement francisé en « Le Mantègne » ou « André Mantègne », par exemple chez Stendhal, dans son essai sur les Écoles italiennes de peinture, et chez André Suarès dans Le Voyage du condottière (1932).
8. ^ Decker, Heinrich (1969) [1967]. The Renaissance in Italy: Architecture • Sculpture • Frescoes. New York: The Viking Press. p. 109.
9. ^ "Mantegna, Andrea" (US) and "Mantegna, Andrea". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2021-11-16.
10. В 1963 году городок переименован в честь художника в «Isola Mantegna»
11. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. — Volume 69 (2007). — URL: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/andrea-mantegna_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ Архивная копия от 17 апреля 2021 на Wayback Machine