Andrea Mantegna Giclée Art Prints Gallery

Andrea Mantegna (1430/31-1506) began studying the craft of painting in Padua in the studio of Francesco Squarcione at a very young age. In 1455 he completed the decoration of the chapel in the Church of the Eremitani; the frescoes narrating the lives of St James and St Christopher were largely destroyed in the Second World War. What has survived reveals, in its conception and austere grandeur, the artist's interest in Greek and Roman antiquity, his sense of perspective, underpinned by precise and skilful drawing, and remarkable technical skill. In 1453, the artist was able to paint a beautiful and skilful portrait. Mantegna married the sister of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini and became a member of the most influential family of Venetian painters. In 1456 he received a commission for the church of San Zeno Maggiore in Verona. This huge altarpiece, composed of six panels, was not completed until 1460. In 1797 it would be divided and taken to France. The three main parts were returned to the Basilica of Verona, but the paintings of the altarpiece remain in France - the Crucifixion (in the Louvre), the Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and the Resurrection (in the Tour Museum). At the height of his artistic maturity, the artist constructed his compositions in the spirit of the grand vision of antiquity.

In 1459 Mantegna was called to the service of Lodovico Gonzaga and became the official painter of the Duchy of Mantua. He held this post until his death. The Camera degli Sposi in the ducal palace, completed in 1474, demonstrates a completely new vision with its illusionistic decoration covering the walls completely and its circular opening that seems to lead to the sky. The artist's search for perspective reached its astonishing peak with the Dead Christ depicted in perspective. Mantegna is original and defies classification. He leaves an enlightened oeuvre in which a solemn and majestic world finds powerful expression. His works influenced the painters of northern Italy.