June 9, 2002

Andrea Mantegna (b. 1431, Isola di Cartura, d. 1506, Mantova)

Mantegna, Andrea (1431-1506), one of the foremost north Italian painters of the 15th century. A master of perspective and foreshortening, he made important contributions to the compositional techniques of Renaissance painting.

Born (probably at Isola di Carturo, between Vicenza and Padua) in 1431, Mantegna became the apprentice and adopted son of the painter Francesco Squarcione of Padua. He developed a passionate interest in classical antiquity. The influence of both ancient Roman sculpture and the contemporary sculptor Donatello are clearly evident in Mantegna's rendering of the human figure. His human forms were distinguished for their solidity, expressiveness, and anatomical correctness.

Mantegna's principal works in Padua were religious. His first great success was a series of frescoes on the lives of St. James and St. Christopher in the Ovetari Chapel of the Church of the Eremitani (1456; badly damaged in World War II).

In 1459 Mantegna went to Mantua to become court painter to the ruling Gonzaga family and accordingly turned from religious to secular and allegorical subjects. His masterpiece was a series of frescoes (1465-74) for the Camera degli Sposi (“bridal chamber”) of the Palazzo Ducale. In these works, he carried the art of illusionistic perspective to new limits. His figures depicting the court were not simply applied to the wall like flat portraits but appeared to be taking part in realistic scenes, as if the walls had disappeared. The illusion is carried over onto the ceiling, which appears to be open to the sky, with servants, a peacock, and cherubs leaning over a railing. This was the prototype of illusionistic ceiling painting and was to become an important element of baroque and rococo art.

Mantegna’s later works varied in quality. His largest undertaking, a fresco series on the Triumphs of Caesar (1489, Hampton Court Palace, England), displays a rather dry classicism.

However, Parnassus (shown above; painted in 1497, exhibited at Louvre, Paris), turned out his freshest and most animated work—an allegorical painting commissioned by Isabella d'Este, who wanted to decorate with it her study at the court in Mantua.

In the center of the painting representing a mythological scene the dancing Muses are easily identifiable, both on account of their number and the presence of the mountains in the top left of the picture. The legend tells us that the song of the nine sisters caused volcanic eruptions and other cataclisms that only Pegasus could prevent by stamping his hoof.

Indeed, on the right, the winged and bejewelled horse engages in his providential pawing of the ground. Beside him stands Mercury, who, together with Apollo, protects the adulteress in the love affair betrween Mars and Venus. The two lovers preside over the whole scene from the top of Parnassus. Note that a bed is right beside them. The cuckolded husband, Vulcan, springs out from the entrance of his forge, fulminating against the faithless pair while Apollo twangs a love song, seated lower down with his lyre in his hands.

Although she liked his work and treated him with a due respect, Isabella did not fall in love with the way Mantegna painted the figures—too realistic, according to her eyes. This is the reason why Mantegna had never had an opportunity to produce her portrait. Instead, Isabella wanted Leonardo da Vinci to do the work. Unfortunately, however, Leonardo showed no great interest in producing her portrait with full colors—only leaving a sketch. Why did he not engage in portraiting Isabella? (For an answer, please visit Leonardo da Vinci.)

Despite the lack of Isabella’s enthusiasm, Mantegna never ceased to be innovative. In Madonna of Victory (1495, Louvre), he introduced a new compositional arrangement, based on diagonals, which was later to be exploited by Correggio, while his Dead Christ (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) was a tour de force of foreshortening that pointed ahead to the style of 16th-century Mannerism.

One of the key artistic figures of the second half of the 15th century, Mantegna was the dominant influence on north Italian painting for 50 years. It was also through him that German artists, notably Albrecht Dürer, were made aware of the artistic discoveries of the Italian Renaissance. He died in Mantua on September 13, 1506.