Andrea Mantegna

Italian painter; born according to some authorities, at Vicenza, 
according to others at Padua, in 1431, died at Mantua, 13 
September, 1506. Little is known of his origin save that he came 
of honourable parentage and was adopted at an early age by 
Francesco Squarcione who reared him as his son. Everything tends 
to show that his artistic education began very early, for he was 
at work upon masterpieces at an age when most artists are still 
under tuition. He owed little of what he knew to his foster-
father, who, although the founder of the Paduan school of 
painting, possessed but mediocre ability. Mantegna's earliest 
known work, a "Madonna in Glory", was painted when he was 
seventeen for the church of S. Sofia at Padua. This picture is no 
longer in existence, but to judge from his next dated work, a 
fresco (1452) in the church of the Santo, Padua, this first 
achievement must have exhibited almost incredible maturity of 
talent. In 1454 he was employed in the church of S. Giustina, 
Padua, where he painted the Ancona, which is now in the Brera, at 
Milan Squarcione had been commissioned by the Ovetari family to 
decorate the Church of the Eremitani, Padua, and he had deputed a 
portion of the task to Mantegna. By these frescoes, which attest a 
steady development in his manner, he is doubtless best known. The 
probable dates are 1448-55 and the frescoes due to him are: on the 
left wall, "Baptism of Hermogenes", " St. James before Caesar", 
"St. James led to execution", and "The Martyrdom of St. James"; on 
the right wall, "The Martyrdom of St. Christopher", and "The 
Removal of his Body". These works established his fame as the 
foremost painter of the Paduan school, and among those who 
recognized and applauded his genius was Jacopo Bellini, whose 
daughter, Nicolosia, Mantegna married in 1454. This brought about 
a rupture with Squarcione which was final. 

At the height of his fame he painted the portrait of Cardinal 
Scarampi (1459), the altar-piece of the Church of San Zeno, 
Venice, and the "Agony in the Garden". In 1457 Lodovico Gonzaga, 
Marquess of Mantua, invited Mantegna to enter his service, but it 
was two years before the successful artist could be persuaded to 
accept. In 1459 he went to Mantua, and here, save for the interval 
of his stay in Rome, whither he went at the request of Innocent 
VIII to decorate the new chapel in the Vatican, he spent the 
remainder of his life. He was held in great honour but treated 
with only spasmodic liberality, his salary being irregularly paid. 
Lodovico was succeeded in 1478 by his son Federigo who died in 
1484, and Francesco Gonzaga succeeded him at the age of eighteen. 
Francesco was betrothed to the beautiful and accomplished Isabella 
d'Este, one of the women whose appreciation and encouragement of 
art and letters did so much to make the Renaissance what it was. 
In 1485 Mantegna was ordered by Gonzaga to paint a Madonna for 
Isabella's mother, the Duchess of Ferrara, to do which he 
interrupted a series of paintings, "The Triumph of Caesar", now at 
Hampton Court, which he had begun soon after his arrival in 
Mantua. His work in the Vatican was another interruption, but on 
his return to Mantua in 1490 he continued this, the greatest of 
his works which was completed in 1494. 

In 1495 he painted an altarpiece in commemoration of the 
marquess's victory at Fornovo. This picture, the "Madonna della 
Vittoria", is now at the Louvre. The "Madonna and Saints", painted 
for the church of Santa Maria in Organo, Verona, was finished in 
1497. Another series of paintings was that executed for the 
Marchioness Isabella as decorations for her study. These were "The 
Triumph of Wisdom", "Parnassus", and "The Masque of Comus", the 
last-named being finished by Lorenzo Costa. To the last period of 
his life belong the "Madonna and Saints", now in the National 
Gallery, the "Dead Christ", in the Brera, Milan and "The Triumph 
of Scipio", in the National Gallery. Mantegna's work is grandly 
conceived and severely beautiful. His manner has been called dry 
and hard, but he exhibits marvellous art in his modelling of form 
and disposing of drapery, as well as great knowledge of design. He 
was one of the earliest Italian engravers on copper, but few of 
the plates attributed to him are his. 

B.M. KELLY 
Transcribed by Michael C. Tinkler