Description
The City Museum of Palazzo San Sebastiano, called MACA – Mantova Collezioni Antiche since 2023, tells the history and art of Mantua in the favorite residence of Marquis Francesco II Gonzaga, built between 1506 and 1512.
The palace itself is part of the visit: the Loggia dei Marmi and the frescoed rooms brought back by restoration, such as the Chamber of the Sun and the Chamber of the Arrows. Among the works are the terracotta bust of Francesco II and an Egyptian collection that came from Palazzo Te.
The museum also holds the Risorgimento collections, with uniforms, weapons, newspapers and prints from the Napoleonic era up to Mantua's entry into the Kingdom of Italy.
The upper hall once displayed the nine large canvases of Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar, which are now at Hampton Court, near London: the museum keeps 17th-century copies of them. In the following centuries the palace became a barracks, a quarantine hospital, public baths and a school, and almost all of its decoration was lost.
The palace itself is part of the visit: the Loggia dei Marmi and the frescoed rooms brought back by restoration, such as the Chamber of the Sun and the Chamber of the Arrows. Among the works are the terracotta bust of Francesco II and an Egyptian collection that came from Palazzo Te.
The museum also holds the Risorgimento collections, with uniforms, weapons, newspapers and prints from the Napoleonic era up to Mantua's entry into the Kingdom of Italy.
The upper hall once displayed the nine large canvases of Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar, which are now at Hampton Court, near London: the museum keeps 17th-century copies of them. In the following centuries the palace became a barracks, a quarantine hospital, public baths and a school, and almost all of its decoration was lost.