Description
The Ducal Palace of Mantua, the royal residence of the Gonzagas, is a palace-city of more than 35,000 square meters, with courtyards, gardens and hundreds of rooms, in the center of Mantua, between Piazza Sordello and Lake Inferiore. Inside is a masterpiece of the Renaissance, the Camera degli Sposi by Andrea Mantegna.
The Camera degli Sposi, also called the Camera Picta, is in the Castello di San Giorgio. Mantegna frescoed it between 1465 and 1474: on the walls the family of Marquis Ludovico III, with court and carefully rendered portraits, and on the vault the famous oculus.
The oculus is a round opening illusionistically onto the sky. Leaning over a balustrade are a lady with her maid, a group of servants, a dozen putti and a peacock. The girls, with a conspiratorial air, seem about to drop a pot of citrus plants into the room.
Under the marquis's throne crouches Rubino, his favorite dog, a symbol of loyalty. In the cloud near the pot hides a human profile, probably the painter's self-portrait. The name "Camera degli Sposi" (Room of the Newlyweds) dates from 1648, but it was not a bridal chamber: Ludovico used it to receive guests and keep documents.
The Pisanello rooms, in the Corte Vecchia, preserve fragments of a cycle of chivalric frescoes on the tales of King Arthur, painted by Pisanello in 1433 and 1437. They were covered for centuries, even by a frieze with portraits of the Gonzagas, and rediscovered between 1965 and 1970.
The Salone dell'Armeria, enormous (67 by 15 meters), hosted the Diet of Mantua in 1459. The Apartment of the Tapestries has nine Flemish tapestries woven from Raphael's cartoons, the same ones as the well-known tapestries of the Sistine Chapel. In the Zodiac Room the ceiling frescoed by Lorenzo Costa the Younger, with Diana's chariot, alludes to the duke's horoscope.
The Sala del Labirinto has on its ceiling a carved labyrinth with the motto "Forse che sì forse che no" (Maybe yes, maybe no). The Galleria della Mostra is a hall 64 meters long with an imposing wooden ceiling, and the Sala di Manto tells with its frescoes the legendary birth of the city.
The courtyards and gardens are also worth the visit: the Hanging Garden 12 meters up, the Garden of Simples with medicinal plants and the Cortile della Cavallerizza, by Bertani, with a rusticated base and twisted half-columns.
Its history is one of additions. From 1308 it was the residence of the Bonacolsi and then of the Gonzagas. Each duke wanted a wing for himself and his art, and from 1556 Duke Guglielmo commissioned Giovan Battista Bertani to link the different buildings into one great complex.
The furnishings, on the other hand, were lost. Because of financial difficulties the Gonzagas sold works of art, above all to Charles I of England, and the sack of 1630 finished the job. Under Austria the palace had military uses, and since 1887 it can be visited.
The so-called Apartment of the Dwarfs, believed for centuries to be the home of the court dwarfs, is actually a Scala Santa on a reduced scale, commissioned by Duke Ferdinando. In 1979 the scholar Renato Berzaghi exposed the misunderstanding.
Don't miss
• The Camera degli Sposi.
• The Pisanello rooms.
• The Apartment of the Tapestries.
• The Sala del Labirinto.
• The Galleria della Mostra.
Did you know?
• The embalmed body of Passerino Bonacolsi, killed in 1328, was displayed astride a stuffed hippopotamus: around 1700 the mummy was thrown into the lake.
• Mantegna painted the Camera over almost ten years, with very small daily work sessions.
• In the seventeenth century Rubens painted for the Gonzagas the large Trinity adored by the ducal family: the central canvas survives.
The Camera degli Sposi, also called the Camera Picta, is in the Castello di San Giorgio. Mantegna frescoed it between 1465 and 1474: on the walls the family of Marquis Ludovico III, with court and carefully rendered portraits, and on the vault the famous oculus.
The oculus is a round opening illusionistically onto the sky. Leaning over a balustrade are a lady with her maid, a group of servants, a dozen putti and a peacock. The girls, with a conspiratorial air, seem about to drop a pot of citrus plants into the room.
Under the marquis's throne crouches Rubino, his favorite dog, a symbol of loyalty. In the cloud near the pot hides a human profile, probably the painter's self-portrait. The name "Camera degli Sposi" (Room of the Newlyweds) dates from 1648, but it was not a bridal chamber: Ludovico used it to receive guests and keep documents.
The Pisanello rooms, in the Corte Vecchia, preserve fragments of a cycle of chivalric frescoes on the tales of King Arthur, painted by Pisanello in 1433 and 1437. They were covered for centuries, even by a frieze with portraits of the Gonzagas, and rediscovered between 1965 and 1970.
The Salone dell'Armeria, enormous (67 by 15 meters), hosted the Diet of Mantua in 1459. The Apartment of the Tapestries has nine Flemish tapestries woven from Raphael's cartoons, the same ones as the well-known tapestries of the Sistine Chapel. In the Zodiac Room the ceiling frescoed by Lorenzo Costa the Younger, with Diana's chariot, alludes to the duke's horoscope.
The Sala del Labirinto has on its ceiling a carved labyrinth with the motto "Forse che sì forse che no" (Maybe yes, maybe no). The Galleria della Mostra is a hall 64 meters long with an imposing wooden ceiling, and the Sala di Manto tells with its frescoes the legendary birth of the city.
The courtyards and gardens are also worth the visit: the Hanging Garden 12 meters up, the Garden of Simples with medicinal plants and the Cortile della Cavallerizza, by Bertani, with a rusticated base and twisted half-columns.
Its history is one of additions. From 1308 it was the residence of the Bonacolsi and then of the Gonzagas. Each duke wanted a wing for himself and his art, and from 1556 Duke Guglielmo commissioned Giovan Battista Bertani to link the different buildings into one great complex.
The furnishings, on the other hand, were lost. Because of financial difficulties the Gonzagas sold works of art, above all to Charles I of England, and the sack of 1630 finished the job. Under Austria the palace had military uses, and since 1887 it can be visited.
The so-called Apartment of the Dwarfs, believed for centuries to be the home of the court dwarfs, is actually a Scala Santa on a reduced scale, commissioned by Duke Ferdinando. In 1979 the scholar Renato Berzaghi exposed the misunderstanding.
Don't miss
• The Camera degli Sposi.
• The Pisanello rooms.
• The Apartment of the Tapestries.
• The Sala del Labirinto.
• The Galleria della Mostra.
Did you know?
• The embalmed body of Passerino Bonacolsi, killed in 1328, was displayed astride a stuffed hippopotamus: around 1700 the mummy was thrown into the lake.
• Mantegna painted the Camera over almost ten years, with very small daily work sessions.
• In the seventeenth century Rubens painted for the Gonzagas the large Trinity adored by the ducal family: the central canvas survives.