Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Court Art for Duke Federico Gonzaga in Mantua

Titian
Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua
ca. 1530
oil on panel
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Titian
St. Jerome in Penitence
ca. 1531
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Titian
Madonna of the Rabbit
ca. 1525
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Titian
The Entombment
ca. 1520
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Titian
The Supper at Emmaus
ca. 1535
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

"The art world in Mantua between Mantegna's death (1506) and Giulio Romano's arrival (1524) had been dominated by good, local artists, enlivened by occasional visits from some excellent masters from neighboring cities.  The arrival of Raphael's pupil [Giulio Romano] marked a radical change in the city's artistic life.  . . . Fortified by [Federico] Gonzaga's unconditional support – the artist and his patron were the same age and shared similar tastes and sensibilities – Giulio moved freely and without undue concern in court circles.  . . .  He did not interact with the local artistic community; instead he simply ignored it and imposed himself as a sort of hegemonic figure in the world of Gonzaga's artistic politics."

"Diana Brodart has undertaken a careful study of the relationship between the great Venetian master [Titian] and Federico Gonzaga. She has been able to document about forty of Titian's pictures that were sent from Venice to Mantua.  These canvases were executed either for the duke himself, who often sent them as gifts to influential figures in the imperial court in order to solicit favors, or for important people at his court.  For example the castle warden, Giovan Giacomo Calandra, owned a Titian Mary Magdalen, and Count Nicola Maffei's The Supper at Emmaus is now in the Louvre.  The significant number of paintings Titian made for Mantua, including Federico's portrait in the Prado and The Virgin with the Rabbit, Saint Jerome, and The Entombment of Christ, all now in the Louvre, suggests a well-established relationship between the artist and the Gonzaga, and one that, because it was so visible in the small world of art in Mantua, must have had the blessing of Giulio Romano.  Because their spheres of expertise were so different, Giulio could have had no legitimate fear of being overshadowed by his Venetian colleague: Titian was famous for his canvases while Giulio had essentially given up easel painting.  He must have known that Titian had no intention of leaving Venice or of competing with him directly in Mantua.  The artists appear to have known one another and even to have had a friendly relationship, as we can tell from several surviving letters, as well as the portrait Titian made of Giulio in about 1536.  The latter was recently acquired by the province of Mantua and is now exhibited at the Palazzo Te.  Titian paints Giulio proudly holding a drawing bearing the plan of a centralized building."

Titian
Portrait of Giulio Romano
ca. 1536
oil on canvas
Provincia di Mantova

Giulio Romano
Triumph of Titus and Vespasian
ca. 1536-40
oil on panel
Musée du Louvre

Giulio Romano and workshop
Pluto driving his Chariot
ca. 1532-36
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Giulio Romano and workshop
Ceiling Panels with Episodes from the Story of Psyche
1526-28
fresco
Sala di Psiche
Palazzo Te, Mantua

Giulio Romano and workshop
Mars and Venus Bathing
1526-28
fresco
Sala di Psiche
Palazzo Te, Mantua

Rinaldo Mantovano assisting Giulio Romano
Zephyr propelling Psyche over the Sea
1527
oil on stucco
Sala di Psiche
Palazzo Te, Mantua

Giulio Romano and workshop
Ceiling Panels with Mythological Figures
1526
fresco
Sala dei Cavalli
Palazzo Te, Mantua

Giulio Romano and workshop
Assembly of Gods on Olympus (detail)
1532-34
fresco
Sala dei Giganti
Palazzo Te, Mantua

Giulio Romano and workshop
Fall of the Giants (north wall)
1532-34
fresco
Sala dei Giganti
Palazzo Te, Mantua

"Giulio Romano put together an enormous workshop of artists who could work up and then execute his designs while maintaining, as far as possible, a uniform stylistic tone.  The master established the overall decorative framework of a room, the composition of its figural groups, and the placement of individual figures in an impressive number of drawings.  His assistants then translated them, using a system of squaring, into cartoons that allowed the original idea to be transferred onto the walls themselves.  Even the most talented artists who spent time in Giulio's workshop, like the Bolognese sculptor Francesco Primaticcio, had to rein in their own stylistic impulses in order to sustain a uniformity that reflected the master's style.  And with little documentary evidence to help us, it is very difficult to distinguish individual hands in the decorative cycles."

– extracts from The Art of Mantua: Power and Patronage in the Renaissance by Barbara Furlotti and Guido Rebecchini, translated by A. Lawrence Jenkens (Getty, 2008)

Giulio Romano and workshop
Fall of the Giants
1532-34
fresco
(photographed by Candida Höfer in 2010)
Sala dei Giganti, Palazzo Te, Mantua