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Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)
Andrea Mantegna
(1431 - 1506) |
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Renaissance master; sculptural quality to his figures and landscapes; experimented with perspective and illusion; religious subjects and portraits Art Work
| Name: |
Andrea Mantegna |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Padua, Italy |
| Nationality: |
Italian |
| Birth: |
1431 |
| Death: |
1506 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Renaissance master; sculptural quality to his figures and landscapes; experimented with perspective and illusion; religious subjects and portraits |
| Medium: |
Fresco |
| Method: |
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| Style: |
Ealy Italian Renaissance |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| Andrea Mantegna was one of the most important artists of fifteenth-century Italy, a man whose profound influence affected both his contemporaries and generations of artists thereafter. Giovanni Bellini, Albrecht Durer, Leonardo da Vinci, and Antonio da Correggio all reflected elements of Mantegna's style and technique, while his innovative fresco schemes paved the way forward for several centuries. He worked within the Italian Renaissance tradition. He is especially known for his adherence to classical Roman precedents and virtuoso use of illusionary perspective-notably in his frescoes and in his sacra conversazione paintings of the Madonna with Jesus among the saints. Apart from his painted works, he was an expert draftsman and produced many prints now considered to be the best examples of copperplate engraving from his time. He broke new ground with his etchings, developing the technique of combining dry point and burin to give greater tonal range and working on a far larger scale than was usual. Mantegna's talent was precocious. At eleven years old he was apprenticed to Paduan painter Francesco Squarcione and aged seventeen he left Squarcione to establish himself as an independent painter. The extent of Squarcione's influence on the young artist seems negligible, although he adored Roman antiquities-also one of Mantegna's lifelong passions. The work of Donatello was to have a more profound effect on Mantegna's developing visual language, as well as that of Paolo Uccello and Jacopo Bellini. One of Mantegna's earliest identified works is 5f. Mark (c.1440s); it displays the foundations of his mature style in its use of perspective and exacting realism. The first large-scale scheme that Mantegna undertook was the decoration of theOvetari Chapel in Padua. In 1448 he and fellow artist Nicol6 Pizzolo were commissioned to decorate half of the chapel with scenes from the life of St. James, while the artists Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d'Alemagna were to undertake the other half. Eventually Mantegna completed most of the decorative scheme himself. His sculptural approach to his figurative work is apparent in his muscular and smooth forms and is evident too in his sumptuous portrayal of Roman-style draped material. In 1453-the year he married Nicolosia Bellini, daughter of Jacopo-Mantegna was commissioned to paint the St. Luke altarpiece for the Benedictines of San Giustina, Padua. Here again, his characteristic manipulation and use of perspective is at the fore, creating a unified, balanced scheme across the complicated figural composition. In 1460, after having established a glowing reputation in Padua, Mantegna became court painter to the Marquis of Mantua, Ludovico II Gonzaga. He was the first preeminent painter to live in Mantua and remained therefrom 1466 to 1488, receiving a high salary and working exclusively for the Gonzaga family, with whom he became friendly. He created some of his most famous works at this time, including the decorative scheme in the Camera degli Sposi (Wedding Chamber) at the Palazzo Ducale. His portraits of the Gonzagas were some of the finest of the period. When in Rome In 1448 Mantegna traveled to Rome at the request of Pope Innocent VIII to paint the Belvedere Chapel in the Vatican. The building was destroyed in 1780, but descriptions of Mantegna's work lived on in the writings of historian Giorgio Vasari. On his return to Mantua, he began work on a series of nine canvases depicting the Triumphs of Caesar (c,1486-1505).They illustrate the artist at perhaps his most Roman, drawing on classical forms, and precedents that re-create the world of antiquity. Late in life Mantegna produced two notable paintings for Isabella d'Este, consort to Francesco Gonzaga. The two allegorical scenes Parnassus (Mars and Venus) (1497) and Pallas Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue (1499-1502)-show the artist's cerebral approach to the subjects and would have been very much appreciated by the intellectual audiences for which they were intended. Following Mantegna's death in 1506, an impressive monument was built for him in the church of Sant'Andrea. |
Samples of Work
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