Description
The House of Mantegna is the home the painter Andrea Mantegna built for himself in Mantua from 1476, opposite the church of San Sebastiano: a building that looks utterly plain but hides, at its centre, a surprising round courtyard. It hosts temporary exhibitions and cultural events.
The heart of the house is the circular courtyard, set inside a square building about 25 metres a side. All the rooms look onto this cylinder open to the sky, with four arched doorways and eight windows, like the atrium of an ancient Roman house.
The design follows precise geometric rules: the circle is inscribed in the square according to the proportions of the golden ratio, and the rooms are linked by a ring-shaped route. The scholar Franco Borsi called it one of the most intriguing buildings of the Renaissance.
On the upper floor, open to the public since 1999, traces remain of frescoed friezes and coffered ceilings, two of Mantegna's coats of arms and a ceiling with a radiant sun and the motto "ab olympo", the emblem of Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga.
Mantegna had come to Mantua as court painter to the Gonzagas. The land, then among vegetable gardens and orchards south of the city, was given to him by Ludovico on 18 October 1476, perhaps as a reward for the frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi.
Some scholars note a resemblance to that very room: there, a painted oculus of sky opens at the centre of a square vault; here, anyone looking up from the middle of the courtyard sees a circle of sky inside the square of the walls.
Who actually designed it remains uncertain: perhaps Mantegna himself, perhaps Giovanni da Padova, but certainly under the influence of Leon Battista Alberti, who was working in Mantua in those years and had designed the church of San Sebastiano, right opposite.
Mantegna lived there only briefly: in 1502, four years before his death, he had to hand it over to the Gonzagas. Over the following centuries it was altered until it was unrecognisable, and in the 19th century it ended up as part of a barracks.
From 1940, restoration freed it from its 18th-century additions, starting with the courtyard, the only Renaissance part still recognisable. In 1974 the house opened to the public.
Don't miss
• The circular courtyard.
• The ceilings and coats of arms on the upper floor.
Did you know?
• Mantegna received 75 lire a month from the Gonzagas, and was perhaps the best-paid artist of his century.
• The round courtyard was never roofed over, and no one knows whether it was meant to be.
The heart of the house is the circular courtyard, set inside a square building about 25 metres a side. All the rooms look onto this cylinder open to the sky, with four arched doorways and eight windows, like the atrium of an ancient Roman house.
The design follows precise geometric rules: the circle is inscribed in the square according to the proportions of the golden ratio, and the rooms are linked by a ring-shaped route. The scholar Franco Borsi called it one of the most intriguing buildings of the Renaissance.
On the upper floor, open to the public since 1999, traces remain of frescoed friezes and coffered ceilings, two of Mantegna's coats of arms and a ceiling with a radiant sun and the motto "ab olympo", the emblem of Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga.
Mantegna had come to Mantua as court painter to the Gonzagas. The land, then among vegetable gardens and orchards south of the city, was given to him by Ludovico on 18 October 1476, perhaps as a reward for the frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi.
Some scholars note a resemblance to that very room: there, a painted oculus of sky opens at the centre of a square vault; here, anyone looking up from the middle of the courtyard sees a circle of sky inside the square of the walls.
Who actually designed it remains uncertain: perhaps Mantegna himself, perhaps Giovanni da Padova, but certainly under the influence of Leon Battista Alberti, who was working in Mantua in those years and had designed the church of San Sebastiano, right opposite.
Mantegna lived there only briefly: in 1502, four years before his death, he had to hand it over to the Gonzagas. Over the following centuries it was altered until it was unrecognisable, and in the 19th century it ended up as part of a barracks.
From 1940, restoration freed it from its 18th-century additions, starting with the courtyard, the only Renaissance part still recognisable. In 1974 the house opened to the public.
Don't miss
• The circular courtyard.
• The ceilings and coats of arms on the upper floor.
Did you know?
• Mantegna received 75 lire a month from the Gonzagas, and was perhaps the best-paid artist of his century.
• The round courtyard was never roofed over, and no one knows whether it was meant to be.