Mantegna, Andrea (ändrĕ`ä mäntĕ`nyä), 1431–1506, Italian painter of the Paduan school. He was adopted by Squarcione, whose apprentice he remained until 1456, when he procured his release. In 1454 he had married the daughter of Jacopo Bellini and by 1460 he had entered the service of the Gonzagas in Mantua, in which he continued all his life. Mantegna was one of the greatest and most celebrated artists of N Italy. His passion for the antique is evidenced in all his work, and he was one of the first artists to make an extensive collection of Greek and Roman works. A rigorous draftsman and anatomist and a perfectionist in perspective, he nevertheless gave to his statuesque forms an intense and dramatic life. Among his early works the most celebrated are his frescoes of the lives of St. James and St. Christopher (Church of the Eremitani, Padua, destroyed in World War II); St. Luke altarpiece (Milan); and San Zeno altarpiece (Verona; parts are at the Louvre and Tours). In Mantua he decorated the bridal chamber of the Gonzaga palace with frescoes portraying many members of the family and other notables (completed 1474). On the ceiling he created the illusion of sky, a form of decoration that became very popular in the baroque period. Mantegna also painted nine cartoons depicting the Triumph of Caesar (Hampton Court Palace) and a Pietà (Milan). About 1497 he executed for Isabella d'Este Parnassus and Triumph of Virtue (Louvre). The Metropolitan Museum has his Adoration of the Shepherds. Mantegna is also noted for his drawings and copper-plate engravings. Early in his career he illustrated two manuscripts intended for René, duke of Anjou. In his initial letters for Strabo's Geography, he recaptured the art of Roman inscriptions. His lettering had a great influence on the development of printing. Among his engravings are Virgin and Child, Battle of the Sea Gods, and the Entombment.

Bibliography

See Complete Paintings of Mantegna, ed. by L. Coletti (1970); L. Berti, Mangegna (1964).

Mantegna, Andrea

Arrival of Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, fresco by Andrea Mantegna, …

(credit: SuperStock)

(born 1431, Isola di Cartura, near Vicenza, Republic of Venice [Italy]—died Sept. 13, 1506, Mantua, March of Mantua) Italian painter. The son of a woodworker, he was adopted by Francesco Squarcione, a tailor-turned-painter; Mantegna was one of several pupils who later sued him for exploitation. At about 17 he established his own workshop and received an important commission for an altarpiece, now lost. His frescoes in Padua's Eremitani Church (1448–57), with their monumental figures and detailed treatment of Classical architecture, show that he had fully mastered perspective and foreshortening and was successfully experimenting with illusionistic effects, best seen in his frescoes of the Gonzaga family (completed 1474) in the Palazzo Ducale's Camera degli Sposi in Mantua, which transform the small interior room into an open-air pavilion. He was the first artist in northern Italy to work fully in the Renaissance style. He married a daughter of the Bellini family in 1453 but did not join the Bellini studio. He later became court painter to Ludovico Gonzaga. His humanistic approach to antiquity and his spatial illusionism were to have far-reaching influence.