Andrea Mantegna was an Italian Renaissance painter, a student of Roman archaeology, and the son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini.
Paintings by Andrea Mantegna
Madonna della Vittoria (1495)
The Madonna della Vittoria is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna; the painting was executed in 1496.
On 6 July 1495 the French army of Charles VIII of France, retreating from Italy after the French Invasion of 1494–1498, fought the Italic League at the Battle of Fornovo. The League, commanded by Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, was made up of numerous nation-states determined to prevent French dominance in Italy, and included the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Venice, Milan, and the Papal States controlled by Pope Alexander VI. In the battle, the League's army failed to capture Charles VIII, who retreated back to France, but captured the French treasure and supplies. Both the French and Italians claimed victory at Fornovo: To celebrate the battle, Francesco commissioned Mantegna to paint the Madonna della Vittoria.
Agony in the Garden (Mantegna, London) (1450)
The Agony in the Garden is a painting of 1455–1456 by the Italian artist Andrea Mantegna in the National Gallery, London.
The painting shows Christ (at the centre) praying before a group of cherubs (at upper left) who are holding instruments of the Passion. Judas, the disciple who betrayed Christ, leads a group of soldiers (centre right) from Jerusalem to arrest him. Meanwhile, Christ's disciples Peter, James and John sleep (bottom).
Lamentation of Christ (Mantegna) (1483)
The Lamentation of Christ (also known as the Lamentation over the Dead Christ, The Foreshortened Christ, or the Dead Christ and Three Mourners and other variants) is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna. It portrays the body of Christ supine on a marble slab. He is watched over by the Virgin Mary, Saint John and St. Mary Magdalene weeping for his death. While the dating of the piece is debated, it was completed between 1475 and 1501, probably in the early 1480s. The painting is currently at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
The Lamentation of Christ is a topic in Christian religious art, especially popular in the High Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods, which depicts the moment of mourning following the Crucifixion and lowering of Christ's body from the cross. Mantegna's variant includes some aspects commonly associated with the scene, including the presence of Mary and John as mourners and the presentation of the body on the Stone of Unction. The painting shows the nail wounds in Christ's feet and hands and, though less pronounced, the spear wound on his side.
San Zeno Altarpiece (Mantegna) (1460)
The San Zeno Altarpiece is a polyptych altarpiece by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna created around 1456–1459. It remains in situ in the Basilica di San Zeno, the main church of the Northern Italian city of Verona. Mantegna's style mixes Greco-Roman classical themes along with Christian subjects in this altarpiece. The central panel, along with the three paintings that comprise the predella, were taken in 1797 by the French. While the main, central scene was returned by the French to Verona in 1815, the three predella paintings in Verona today are copies, since the original ones remain in France at the Louvre (Crucifixion) and in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tours (Resurrection and Agony in the Garden). The paintings are made with tempera on panel; not oil as mistakenly identified in one source.
The San Zeno Altarpiece was commissioned around 1456 to 1459 by Gregorio Correr, a Venetian nobleman, humanist scholar, and administrator for and abbot of the Church of San Zeno. The San Zeno altarpiece was commissioned and made to depict a heavenly realm. This was intended so the viewers would aspire for a position in the "court of heaven" in communion with the religious figures portrayed in the altarpiece. Furthermore, St. Zeno the patron saint of Verona, is believed to have introduced Christianity to Verona, therefore this altarpiece is named in his honor. After his work on the San Zeno Altarpiece, Mantegna finally arrived in Mantua in the year 1460 to serve as the court artist to the House of Gonzaga, the leading princely family of the city. Mantegna had actually been hired by Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, three years before, in 1457, but disagreements about Mantegna's pay and status delayed his arrival and it was during this period of postponement that he worked on the San Zeno Altarpiece.
Saint Sebastian (Mantegna) (1460)
Saint Sebastian is the subject of three paintings by the Italian Early Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna. The Paduan artist lived in a period of frequent plagues; Sebastian was considered protector against the plague as he had been shot through by arrows, and it was thought that plague spread abroad through the air. In his long stay in Mantua, Mantegna resided near the San Sebastiano church dedicated to Saint Sebastian. The three paintings are held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Louvre in Paris, and the Ca' d'Oro in Venice.
It has been suggested that the picture was made after Mantegna had recovered from the plague in Padua (1456–1457). Probably commissioned by the city's podestà to celebrate the end of the pestilence, it was finished before the artist left the city for Mantua.
Death of the Virgin (Mantegna) (1462)
The Death of the Virgin is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna, dating to c. 1462–1464.
In this picture Mantegna depicts the last moment of the Virgin Mary's life within a space defined by classical architecture, with a squared pavement which leads the observer's eyes towards the bed on which the Virgin lies. In the background is a lake scene which is a detailed reproduction of the bridge and the burgh of the Castello di San Giorgio in Mantua. The work was originally part of the decoration of the castle's chapel, together with three panels now in the Uffizi in Florence (The Adoration of the Magi, The Ascension and The Circumcision, collectively known as the Uffizi Triptych) and one now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Ferrara (Christ Bearing the Soul of the Virgin).
Presentation at the Temple (Mantegna) (1400)
The Presentation at the Temple is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna. Dating to c. 1455, it is housed in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany.
The date of the painting is unknown, but it belongs to the painter’s youth in Padua. The possible range of dates for the work spans from 1453 (when Mantegna married Nicolosia Bellini, daughter of the painter Jacopo Bellini and sister of painters Giovanni Bellini and Gentile Bellini) to 1460 (when Mantegna left for Mantua). Giovanni Bellini’s Presentation at the Temple, explicitly inspired by Mantegna's, dates to around the latter year.
Adoration of the Shepherds (Mantegna) (1450)
The Adoration of the Shepherds is a painting by the northern Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna, dated to c. 1450-1451.
This small painting is generally attributed to Mantegna's youth. It was likely commissioned by Borso d'Este during the artist's stay in Ferrara in 1450–1451.
Judith with the Head of Holofernes (Mantegna, Washington) (1495)
Judith with the Head of Holofernes is an Italian Renaissance painting attributed to Andrea Mantegna or to a follower of his, possibly Giulio Campagnola. Painted in tempera in around 1495 or 1500, it depicts the common artistic subject of Judith beheading Holofernes.
The painting has been dated through comparison with similar grisaille panels with Old Testament subjects which Mantegna produced around 1495 and 1500.
Saint George (Mantegna) (1460)
Saint George is a 66 by 32 cm tempera on panel painting by Andrea Mantegna, dated to around 1460 and now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. It shows the saint in armour and on foot, carrying the remains of the lance he has used to kill the dragon, who lies at his feet with the lance's point stuck in its jaw. There is a marble border down the left and right hand sides of the painting, though George's elbow protrudes over the left hand border and the dragon's head over the right-hand border - such illusions were a signature trait of Mantegna's work, especially between the end of his Paduan period (by 1459) and the start of his time in Mantua (from 1460). The garland at the top is a typical motive of the Squarcione school, referring back to Mantegna's time in Squarcione's studio in Padua during his youth, whilst in the right hand background a road leads to a walled hilltop city.
Triumph of the Virtues (Mantegna) (1487)
The Triumph of the Virtues (also known as Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue) is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna, completed in 1502. It is housed in the Musée du Louvre of Paris.
The triumph was the second picture painted by Mantegna for Isabella d'Este's studiolo (cabinet), after the Parnassus of 1497. It portrays a marsh enclosed by a tall fence, ruled over by the Vices, portrayed as hideous figures and identified by scrolls in a typically medieval way. Idleness is chased by Minerva, who is also rescuing Diana, goddess of chastity, from being raped by a Centaur, symbol of concupiscence. Next to Minerva is a tree with human features. High in the sky are the three primary moral virtues required to perfect the appetitive powers: Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
Madonna with Sleeping Child (Mantegna) (1457)
The Madonna with Sleeping Child is a glue-tempera on canvas painting measuring 43 cm by 32 cm. It was painted around 1465-1470 by Andrea Mantegna and is now in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
Intended for private devotion, it dispenses with the two figures' usual haloes in favour of a more intimate, simple and tender approach. Mantegna draws on Donatello's motif of Mary's face touching the child, whilst they are both enveloped in a brocade mantle against a black background.
Madonna of the Caves (1489)
The Madonna of the Caves (Italian – Madonna delle Cave) is a tempera on panel painting measuring 32 cm 29.6 cm. It was painted in 1488-1490 by the Italian painter Andrea Mantegna and is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
It is named after a stone quarry in the right-hand background, where workers are carving out a capital, a slab, part of a column shaft and a sarcophagus, perhaps alluding to Christ future flagellation and burial. The rock on which the Virgin sits may also be intended to represent the summit of Calvary, whilst in the left-hand background are a shepherd and his flock, farmers gathering hay from a field, a castle and a road leading to a distant walled city. Fiocco argues that the background is based on Carrara whilst Kristeller instead identifies it with Monte Bolca between Vicenza and Verona. Some interpret the shift from dark to light moving from right to left across the background as an allegory of redemption through Christ and the Church, with Mary as the mother of both.
Ovetari Chapel (1457)
The Ovetari Chapel (Italian: Cappella Ovetari) is a chapel in the right arm of the transept of the Church of the Eremitani in Padua. It is renowned for a Renaissance fresco cycle by Andrea Mantegna and others, painted from 1448 to 1457. The cycle was destroyed by an Allied bombing in 1944. Two scenes had been removed in 1880. These and thousands of fragments were used in a partial restoration of the frescoes completed in 2006. They are, however, known from black-and-white photographs.
Antonio Ovetari was a Padua notary who, at his death, left a large sum for the decoration of the family chapel in the Church of the Eremitani. The project was carried out in 1448 by his widow, Imperatrice Ovetari, who, commissioned the work to a group of artists that included the elder Giovanni d'Alemagna, Antonio Vivarini (a Venetian late Gothic painter) and two young Paduans, Niccolò Pizzolo and Andrea Mantegna. The latter at the time was seventeen years old and had just begun his apprenticeship in the Squarcione workshop. According to the original agreement, the first two artists had to paint the arch with histories of the Passion of Christ (never executed), the cross vault and the right wall (Histories of St. Chrisopther) while the two Paduans would paint the rest, including the left wall (Histories of St. James, son of Zebedee) and the apse.