Andrea Mantegna
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Mantegna, Andrea
Bibliography
See Complete Paintings of Mantegna, ed. by L. Coletti (1970); L. Berti, Mangegna (1964).
Mantegna, Andrea
Born in 1431, in Isola di Carturo, Veneto; died Sept. 13, 1506, in Mantua. Italian painter and engraver of the Early Renaissance. Representative of the Padua School.
Mantegna studied with his foster father, F. Squarcione, in Padua (1441[?]-1448). He was influenced by Donatello, Andrea del Castagno, and Venetian painting. Of immense importance to his development were his study of ancient Roman sculpture and architectural ornamentation and his love for archaeology and epigraphy. Mantegna introduced into religious compositions a heroic attitude that expressed a fervent belief in the strength and dignity of the human personality. In one of his early works, the frescoes in the Ovetari Chapel in the Church of the Eremitani in Padua (1449-55; almost completely destroyed in 1944), Mantegna revealed his taste for a severe, architectonic composition and foreshortening. In this and in succeeding works he developed his style, in which the colors, with their metallic sheen, resemble precious enamels. (A good example is the altarpiece and predella for the Church of St. Zeno Maggiore in Verona [1457-1459]. The altarpiece is kept at the church, but panels from the predella are in the Louvre [Paris] and at the Museum of Fine Arts in Tours.) In Mantegna’s works the landscape backgrounds, which are dominated by crystal-like rock formations, and the surrounding scenes reveal the heroic principle.
From 1460, Mantegna lived in Mantua at the court of Lodovico Gonzaga. In the frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi in the Castello San Giorgio (1474) he achieved a synthesis of architecture (the real and the drawn architectural space) and painting, seeking the visual and spatial unity of the interior. The illusionistic effects of the frescoes (the imitation of a round window in the ceiling, for example) anticipate similar works by Correggio. The cycle of monochromatic panels, The Triumph of Caesar (1485-88, 1490-92, Hampton Court, London), is imbued with the harsh spirit of Roman antiquity.
Mantegna’s later works include mythological allegorical compositions for Isabella d’Este’s study (for example, Parnassus, 1497, the Louvre, Paris) and a cycle of monochromes (for example, Samson and Delilah, early 1500’s, National Gallery, London). His graphics (seven copper engravings entitled Combat of Marine Gods, 1470; and Lamentation, or Dead Christ, c. 1500) are almost equal to his paintings in the monumentality of their images. In them the forms are characterized by a chiselled plasticity, and modeling is achieved with delicate strokes.
REFERENCES
Znamerovskaia, T. P. Andrea Mantegna. Leningrad, 1961.Lazarev, V. N. “Mantegna.” In his book Starye Ital’ianskie Mastera. Moscow, 1972. Pages 201-70.
Kristeller, P. A. Mantegna. Berlin-Leipzig, 1902.
Fiocco, G. Mantegna. Milan, 1937.
Tietze-Conrat, E. Mantegna. London, 1955.
Paccagnini, G. Andrea Mantegna. Milan, 1961.