Mantegna

Name: Andrea Mantegna

Achievements: Early perspective painter

Born: 1431; near Vicenza, (Republic of Venice), Italy

Died: September 13, 1506; Mantua, Italy (Aged 75)

Field & Discipline: Art; Painter; Engraver

Language: Italian

Father: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: 1 brother

Spouse: Nicolosia Bellini

Children: Bernardino; Ludovico; Francesco;  3 others

Education: Unknown

Major Work:

"Saint Sebastian"

"Death of the Virgin"

"Dead Christ"

"Camera degli Sposi (The Wedding Chamber)"

"Triumph of Caesar"

"Madonna della Vittoria"

"Parnassus"

Life & Times:

The son of a woodworker, Mantegna set up his own workshop when he was 17, and within a year had a commission for an altarpiece.

He soon moved to Padua, a cosmopolitan Northern Italian university town.  He became interested in humanism and set himself to study the classics.  He also was influenced by the art of Florentine painter Andrea del Castagno (whose large figures are echoed in Mantegna’s early work) and by sculptor [influenced by] Donatello*, who was then working in nearby Mantua.

Still in his teens, Mantegna visited Venice where he came under the influence of Jacopo Bellini, an innovative painter who was using concepts of perspective that he had learned from ancient architecture.  In time Mantegna was to become a master of illustrative perspective.  Mantegna also met Jacopo Bellini's two sons [brother-in-law was] Giovanni Bellini* and [brother-in-law was] Gentile Bellini*, both painters, and his daughter Nicolosia, (whom he was to marry in 1453.)  But Mantegna did not join the Bellini workshops, and returned to Padua to work independently.

Mantegna began working on frescoes for the Ovetari chapel in the Eremitani Church in Padua.   In 1456, Lodovico Gonzaga, a well-known patron of the arts, tried to lure him to Mantua with promises of accommodation for him and his family, supplies of fuel and wheat, and a substantial salary.  Mantegna was still completing his  altarpiece for the church of San Zeno in Verona -- the frame and painted  architecture of which show Mantegna's sculptural approach to his work -- but accepted Gonzaga's invitation three years later, in 1459.

However, no record exists of Mantegna doing any work in Mantua  until 1463, when he began painting at the Palazzo Goito in the country.  His first known works in Mantua included: a triptych for a small palace chapel, "Death of the Virgin", (1465) set against a view of Mantua; a "Saint George," which  showed the continuing influence of Donatello; and "Dead Christ," a picture he refused to part from.

Gonzaga was a patient and generous patron. He gave Mantegna money to redecorate his house, a country property,  and smoothed over the many arguments which broke out between the artist and his gardener, tailor, engravers, neighbors, etc.

Mantegna's most famous work for Gonzaga was the mural for the "Camera degli Sposi” (The Wedding Chamber) in the Palazzo Ducale,   finished in 1474.  By adding architectural elements such as columns,  Mantegna made the room look like an open-air pavilion. The ceiling gave the impression of being concave, and in its center he painted a circular opening to the sky.  With Mantegna's brilliant skill in the use of  perspective, the room was a masterpiece of spatial illusion

Gonzaga's death in 1478, left Mantegna in serious debt and he persuaded Florentine ruler [got money from] Lorenzo de' Medici* to help him out.  But he remained in Mantua, where his fortunes improved when Francesco I became ruler in 1484.  In 1486, Mantegna began to work on a series of paintings of the "Triumph of Caesar".  The nine canvases that survived showed scenes of a triumphal Roman procession.

In 1488, Mantegna was called to Rome to decorate the Belvedere Chapel for Pope Innocent VIII.  He returned to Mantua five years later to paint the portrait of  [painted] Isabella d'Este*, the daughter of Duke Ercole of Ferrara, who was now the wife of Francesco Gonzaga.  But Isabella was not happy with her picture and wrote to friends that it did not resemble her at all.

Isabella was forgiving, however, and three years later, asked Mantegna to decorate new apartments she had taken for her studio in the Old Court.  In this venture, they got along splendidly.  Their tastes coincided because Isabella considered herself a humanist and was as enthusiastic about classical antiquity as was Mantegna.  The painting "Parnassus" (1497) celebrated the marriage of Isabella to Francesco and portrayed Venus, the goddess of love, sitting on  the slopes of Parnassus with Mars, the god of war.  In "Wisdom Overcoming the Vices" (1502), Isabella was portrayed as Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, wearing a helmet and armed with a spear, chasing off the vices of ignorance, sloth, lust and ingratitude.

On the day Mantegna died in 1507, German painter [died and missed meeting] Durer* had just arrived in Mantua to see him.

Extra Connections: [patron was] Leonello D’Este* brought him to Ferrara. 

He influenced [influenced] Bramante*

Assessment: Mantegna was the most famous painter outside Venice in 15th century Italy and was the first great painter of the Paduan school.

Oneliner: Andrea Mantegna, great early perspective painter

Bibliography:

• Ames-Lewis, D and Bednarek, A, Mantegna and 15th-Century Court Culture,  University of London, 1993.