Art in Tuscany | Andrea Mantegna, The Cappella Ovetari in the Chiesa degli Eremitani | Podere Santa Pia, Holiday house in the south of Tuscany

Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431 – September 13, 1506) was a North Italian Renaissance painter of well regarded influence, who was known for his visual experiments in perspective and spatial illusion. Much of his ambitious life as an artist branched off after leaving his birth home of Padua, in Venice. Before that he was under the tutelage of another Paduan painter Francesco Squarcione (1397 - 1468) at eleven years old and was influenced by Squarcione’s love of ancient Roman art. Although a favorite student of Squarcione, Mantegna became disgruntled at his teacher profiting off work he had done. It was then, at the age of seventeen that he left Padua, never to return, exploring his ambitions in Verona, Mantua, Rome and possibly Venice and Florence. [1]

His early work in Padua included an altarpiece for the church of Santa Sofia (1448) and decorations for the Ovetari Chapel in the church of Eremitani. Most of these works were lost during 1944 due to World War II bombings.
In 1448 Mantegna was called, together with Nicolò Pizolo, to work with a large group of painters entrusted with the decoration of the Ovetari Chapel in the transept of the church of the Eremitani. It is probable, however, that before this time some of the pupils of Squarcione, including Mantegna, had already begun the series of frescoes in the chapel of S. Cristoforo, in the church of Sant'Agostino degli Eremitani, today considered his masterpiece. After a series of coincidences, Mantegna finished most of the work alone, though Ansuino, who collaborated with Mantegna in the Ovetari Chapel, brought his style in the Forlì school of painting.




Andrea Mantegna,
		Profile portraits. Detail of fresco Martyrdom of St. Christophor in the Cappella Ovetari, Padua. According to Vasari - painter's friends: Onofrio (Nofri) Strozzi (Palla Strozzi's son), doctor Girolamo della Valle and lawyer Bonifaccio Frugimelica


[1] Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431 - 1506) was born in or around 1431 in the small town of Isola di Carturo, near Padua, Mantegna is known for the linear sharpness and rigorous attention to detail of his art. Mantegna also stands out among Italian Renaissance painters for his complete dedication to classical antiquity. At an early age the artist was apprenticed to the painter Francesco Squarcione, who later adopted him. However, the young Mantegna soon left his master's studio for an independent career that began when, in 1448, he was awarded part of the commission for the fresco decoration of the Ovetari chapel in the Church of the Eremitani, Padua (now mostly destroyed). Perhaps the single most significant influence on Mantegna's style was the sculpture of Donatello in Padua. Also important was the luminous art of Giovanni Bellini, whose sister, Nicolosia, married Mantegna in 1453. In 1459, persuaded by the Marquis Lodovico Gonzaga, Mantegna moved to Mantua. With the exception of a stay in Rome in 1488-1490, Mantegna spent the rest of his life in the service of three generations of Gonzaga patrons in Mantua. He died there in 1506 as one of the most highly respected artists of the Renaissance. As official painter, Mantegna's reputation reflected positively on the status of the patrons for whom he executed his greatest works. The famous Camera degli Sposi, or Camera Picta, in the ducal palace in Mantua (1465-1474), is his most significant commission for Marquis Lodovico. The innovative spatial construction of the frescoes, particularly the oculus in the ceiling, had a profound effect on Correggio who, though probably too young to have been a pupil, must have studied Mantegna's works very closely. The dignified yet engaging family portraits on the walls of the Camera Picta also had a strong impact on other artists. Lodovico's grandson Francesco II Gonzaga was probably the patron of Mantegna's series of monumental canvases of the Triumphs of Caesar, now at Hampton Court. Though quite damaged, they are key examples of Mantegna's use of the technique of distemper on canvas. Mantegna's religious works reflect the range of his patron's needs from small devotional paintings to great altarpieces--such as the Madonna della Vittoria (Musée du Louvre, Paris), painted for Francesco Gonzaga in 1496. While Mantegna must have had a large workshop to help with his numerous commissions, he had few pupils of note: Bonsignori and Caroto are usually cited, in addition to the lesser talent of his son, Francesco. Mantegna's influence was wide, but nowhere more so than in the field of engraving, which he raised to a high art. [This is the artist's biography published, or to be published, in the NGA Systematic Catalogue] Giuseppe Fiocco, Mantegna, la Cappella Ovetari nella Chiesa degli Eremitani, 1947, A. Pizzi in Milano.
Art in Tuscany \| Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists \| Andrea Mantegna Giorgio Vasari \| Le vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri \| Andrea Mantegna This page uses material from the Wikipedia articles Andrea Mantegna and Cappella Ovetari, published under the GNU Free Documentation License. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cappella Ovetari.

Holiday homes in the Tuscan Maremma \| Podere Santa Pia


Siena	Podere Santa Pia	Podere Santa Pia, garden


Val d'Orcia" tra Montalcino Pienza e San Quirico d’Orcia.	Siena, Piazza del Campo	Massa Marittima


San Marco a Firenze	Siena, Palazzo Sansedoni	Firenze, Duomo


Chiesa degli Eremitani and Museo Civico Eremitani
The Church of the Eremitani is a former Augustinian church, built from 1276 to 1306 and dedicated to St. Philip and St. James. The original roof was built in 1306 by Fra Giovanni degli Eremitani. The church was nearly destroyed during the 1944 aerial bombing, when most of the valuable frescoes were lost, and what can be seen today are the remains of the original building that have been restored after the Second World War. It contains a beautiful wooden ceiling and a number of monumental tombs, among which especially notable are the tomb of Marco Benavides by the Florentine architect Ammannati, and those of Jacopo and Ubertinelo da Carrara, lords of Padua. The chapel of St. James and St. Christopher used to be illustrated by frescoes of Andrea Mantegna, famous Italian Renaissance artist. The surviving remains of Mantegna's celebrated frescoes, "The Martyrdom of St. James" and "The Martyrdom of St. Christopher" are kept in the Cappella Ovetari. Other remaining frescoes in the church are those of Guariento and Ansuino da Forli. The Museo Civico Eremitani is housed in the beautifully restored rooms of the old monastery. The ground floor houses the Archaeological section, featuring Etruscan, Egyptian and Roman antiquities, offering an insight into the city's Roman Palaeovenetian history. Some of the highlights of this rich collection of artifacts include rare Roman medallions and tombs, life-size statues and fine mosaics and a set of Venetian coins. The upstairs art gallery displays a collection of paintings by the great Italian masters from the Venetian and Flemish schools, spanning the period from the early 15th century to the 19th century. The collection contains works by Giotto, Titian, Tiepolo, Guariento, Bellini, Veronese and Tintoretto. The highlights of the collection displayed in the gallery are Tintoretto's Crucifixion, Giorgione's Leda and the Swan, Giotto's beautiful wooden Crucifix and Bellini's Portrait of the Young Senator.