areas to visit or settle at their court. Mantegna arrived when he was about 30
and remained for the rest of his life. His principal legacy is there, a famous
frescoed room in the Ducal Palace.
Our image shows the frescoed room, the Camera degli Sposi (Ducal
Palace, Mantua), which was completed in 1474. The completion of this
epochal decoration coincided with the start of construction of the Church
of Sant’Andrea, designed by Leon Battista Alberti, also commissioned by
Ludovico. Two such concurrent commissioned projects indicate the scope of
the Gonzaga family’s cultural ambition.
The image shows a corner view of the room with a chimney piece at right.
Located in one of the towers of the palace, this room’s name, which translates
roughly as the “chamber of the married couple,” or “of the bride and groom,”
was assigned later, based on the inscription painted on the illusionistic plaque
over the door. The inscription commemorates the married life of the Marchese
and Marchesa Gonzaga rather than their
wedding. The room was used as a banquet
and entertainment hall and a place where
precious artworks were displayed. It was
known to contemporaries simply as the
camera picta, the “painted room.”
It is the astonishing illusionism of
Mantegna’s frescoes that, together with
their beautiful design and color, constitutes
their signi¿ cance in art history. This is
the ¿ rst known instance of a painted decoration that was conceived as a
continuous composition over the walls and the ceiling of a room and was
designed to give the illusion that the painted space on the walls and ceiling
was a continuation of the real space of the room. In the picture, it appears
that we stand not in a completely enclosed space but in a loggia open to other
spaces in the palace. The plaque over the door appears to be bronze or gilded
metal with an engraved inscription. The plaque is supported by standing and
À ying putti, winged children, not angels, with a blue sky beyond them as
though we are looking beyond this imaginary loggia.
The oculus is a vaulted
room, which is largely
covered with smaller
¿ gures painted in
monochrome, as if they
were small sculptures.