Promotori

Mantegna in Mantova 1460 – 1506

On his arrival in Mantova in 1460, where he remained until his death in 1506, Mantegna became court painter of the Gonzagas, devoting his genius almost exclusively to the service of the family. It was Ludovico Gonzaga who persuaded the painter to come to his court, where he painted some of his most celebrated works, that now embellish the collections of the most important Italian and foreign museums. Mantegna, considered a “carissimum familiarem” – in the words of the Marquis himself, Ludovico Gonzaga – enjoyed great prestige in that lively court, not only because of the many works painted for his illustrious patrons, but also because of his fame as a great expert in Roman ruins, a skill he acquired during his early years in Padua, where he had befriended two of the most important “antiquarians” of the time, Giovanni Marcanova and Felice Feliciano.

The indelible traces that Mantegna's art left on Mantova and on painting in Mantova in the period of “interregnum” between the master's death and the arrival, in 1524, of the other great genius who illuminated the city, Giulio Romano, will be the theme of the exhibition “Mantegna in Mantova 1460 – 1506”, that will bring back to the city many of the masterpieces he painted in those years, some of which have never been exhibited in Italy, and have been exceptionally granted for the occasion by the most important Italian and foreign museums.

In addition to the many works by Mantegna including the Madonna with Child, known as the Madonna of the Caves, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence; the two monochromes of Judith and Dido from the Museum of Fine Arts di Montreal; the Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the child John the Baptist from the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth; the Vestal Tuccia and Sophonisba from the National Gallery of London; the two extraordinary paintings from the Louvre, Minerva Banishing the Vices and the Decision of Solomon; a number of important works by Lorenzo Costa and others who worked at his time like Nicolò Solimani, Francesco Bonsignori and his brother Girolamo, Lorenzo Leonbruno, Bernardino Parentino, Gian Francesco Caroto, Vincenzo Civerchio, Girolamo da Treviso il Giovane, Gian Francesco Tura, Francesco Verla are also on view. Many of these painters are less well known to the general public, but they produced works that were technically excellent and that, while revealing the great influence of Mantegna on the painters of his time, are at the same time autonomous in their creative development, capable of providing an overview of the magnificent art that flourished at the court of the Gonzagas.
The show is a fascinating collection of about sixty works that tell the story of Andrea Mantegna from his arrival in Mantova until the decline of the great influence his art had on the painters of the subsequent generation.

In Mantova, Mantegna came into contact with the breakthrough architecture of Leon Battista Alberti who built many of the city's most important monuments, including the churches of Sant’Andrea and San Sebastiano. The genius of Alberti and Mantegna's own studies of the relationships between architecture and painted decoration undertaken early in his career before leaving Padua, gave Mantegna the ideas for some of his greatest masterpieces, starting with the decoration of the Camera Picta or Bridal Chamber, frescoed in the Castle of San Giorgio and considered even then one of the marvels of the age and one of the highest examples of Mantegna's art, thanks also to his highly original idea of opening the ceiling with the illusion of the sky at its center.

The Castle of San Giorgio also houses a exhibition of sculptures organized by Vittorio Sgarbi with Giancarlo Gentilini of the University of Perugia, Rodolfo Signorini, of the National Virgilian Academy and Italo Furlan of the University of Padua. The show illustrates the relationship between Mantegna and ancient art, between the classicism of the Roman model and the naturalism typical of the Po valley, represented by Niccolò dell’Arca and Guido Mazzoni.
For the first time, the exhibition will include the sculpture of St. Euphemia, from the Cathedral of Irsina in Basilicata, attributed to Mantegna and certainly inspired by his classical vision as we can see also in the painting of the same subject from the Museum of Capodimonte. Alongside the sculptures, a number of medallions completes the show.
On the second floor of the Castle is the exhibition entitled Renaissance of the Castle of San Giorgio: Andrea Mantegna and the Gonzagas which will illustrate the lives of the characters linked to the Painted Chamber, in Mantegna's own handwritten notes and in the cultural writings of the court. Portraits of many of the characters shown in the celebrated work will be on view, with the entire collection of handwritten documents by Mantegna in an ideal recreation of the Gonzaga library with some of the manuscripts of religious and secular writings. This show was organized by Filippo Trevisani, Daniela Ferrari and Giordana Mariani Canova.

The exhibition “Mantegna in Mantova” will continue at Palazzo San Sebastiano where a number of works by other artists, disciples of Mantegna, are displayed on the first floor, from Bonsignori to Antonio da Pavia, and some excellent copies from the early 17th century of the Triumphs of Caesar by Mantegna which are part of the permanent collection of the City Museum, and in the Basilica di Sant’Andrea, where two more paintings by the great master are on view: the Baptism of Christ and the Holy Family and the family of John the Baptist.
Palazzo San Sebastiano will also house an exhibition entitled “Plaques and bronze reliefs from Mantegna's time”.

During his life in Mantova, Mantegna's fame spread far and wide. He was celebrated and admired by his contemporaries and left an indelible mark on Mantova with his revolutionary style. Thanks also to the fundamental series of the Triumphs, now at Hampton Court, of which a splendid 17th century copy can be seen at the City Museum of Palazzo San Sebastiano – and in spite of the arrival on the scene, late in the artist's life, of Isabella d’Este, who focused her artistic interest on new talents.