MANTEGNA, Andrea
Biography
Mantegna, Andrea (1431-1506), one of the foremost
north Italian painters of the 15th century. A master of perspective and
foreshortening, he made important contributions to the compositional techniques
of Renaissance painting. Born (probably at Isola di Carturo, between Vicenza
and Padua) in 1431, Mantegna became the apprentice and adopted son of the
painter Francesco Squarcione of Padua. He developed a passionate interest
in classical antiquity. The influence of both ancient Roman sculpture and
the contemporary sculptor Donatello are clearly evident in Mantegna's rendering
of the human figure. His human forms were distinguished for their solidity,
expressiveness, and anatomical correctness. Mantegna's principal works
in Padua were religious. His first great success was a series of frescoes
on the lives of St. James and St. Christopher in the Ovetari Chapel of
the Church of the Eremitani (1456; badly damaged in World War II). In 1459
Mantegna went to Mantua to become court painter to the ruling Gonzaga family
and accordingly turned from religious to secular and allegorical subjects.
His masterpiece was a series of frescoes (1465-74) for the Camera degli
Sposi ("bridal chamber") of the Palazzo Ducale. In these works, he carried
the art of illusionistic perspective to new limits. His figures depicting
the court were not simply applied to the wall like flat portraits but appeared
to be taking part in realistic scenes, as if the walls had disappeared.
The illusion is carried over onto the ceiling, which appears to be open
to the sky, with servants, a peacock, and cherubs leaning over a railing.
This was the prototype of illusionistic ceiling painting and was to become
an important element of baroque and rococo art.
Mantegna's later works varied in quality. His largest undertaking,
a fresco series on the Triumphs of Caesar (1489, Hampton Court Palace,
England), displays a rather dry classicism, but Parnassus (1497, Louvre,
Paris), an allegorical painting commissioned by Isabelle d'Este, is his
freshest, most animated work. His work never ceased to be innovative. In
Madonna of Victory (1495, Louvre), he introduced a new compositional arrangement,
based on diagonals, which was later to be exploited by Correggio, while
his Dead Christ (1506, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) was a tour de force
of foreshortening that pointed ahead to the style of 16th-century Mannerism.
One of the key artistic figures of the second half of the 15th century,
Mantegna was the dominant influence on north Italian painting for 50 years.
It was also through him that German artists, notably Albrecht Dürer,
were made aware of the artistic discoveries of the Italian Renaissance.
He died in Mantua on September 13, 1506.
"Mantegna, Andrea," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c)
1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.
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