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| Ippolito Costa Virgin and Child with Four Saints ca. 1525-30 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
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| Fermo Ghisoni The Deposition ca. 1539-40 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
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| Fermo Ghisoni Assumption of the Virgin before 1575 oil on canvas Santuario della Beata Vergine Maria della Grazie di Curtatone |
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| attributed to Battista Angolo del Moro Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist, St Thomas and members of the Marcello family ca. 1569 oil on canvas Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice |
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| Paolo Farinati Ecce Homo 1562 oil on canvas Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona |
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| Paolo Farinati The Presentation in the Temple ca. 1550-1600 oil on canvas Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona |
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| Giulio Campi Virgin and Child with St Catherine of Alexandria, St Francis and Donor Stampa Soncino 1530 oil on panel Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
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| Domenico Brusasorci (Domenico Riccio) Adoration of the Magi ca. 1553 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Francesco al Corso, Verona |
"In November, 1546, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga received tidings of Giulio Romano's death and sent the news on to his brother Ferrante. It is worth citing his letter at length here because it gives us a sense of how highly the ruling family of Mantua regarded the late artist: We lost our Messer Giulio Romano for which I am very sorry; it seems to me that I have lost my right hand. . . . Like those who always try to find something good in something bad, I can only pretend that the death of this rarest of men has at least been useful in ruining my appetite for building, for silver and pictures etc. since I no longer have the desire to have anything made that is not designed by that handsome genius. Having finished these few that I have at hand, I think as I have said that I will bury all my desires with him. May God give him peace, and I am certain of it since I knew him as a good and pure man in this world and I hope he is known so to God as well."
"In the mid-sixteenth century the economy in the duchy of Mantua was flagging and the ruling family was forced to make deep cuts in spending. Nevertheless, Ercole Gonzaga, being used to the magnificence of his brother's court and having been educated by his sophisticated mother, Isabella d'Este, did not renounce the trappings of a refined life. Going forward, he kept his private behavior as the scion of a noble house distinctly separate from his public role as a rigorous and austere spiritual shepherd and prince of the Church."
"In 1549 Cardinal Gonzaga promoted the architect Giovanni Battista Bertani, one of Giulio Romano's most prominent pupils, to the duchy's office of Prefect of Building Works. Having inherited the artistic style and workshop organisation of his master, Bertani made architectural designs and drawings for paintings that he handed over to his team of assistants, who were then entirely responsible for their execution. His versatility and skill as a draftsman brought Bertani an undisputed prestige at court, which he maintained until his death in 1576. . . . Bertani completed the rebuilding of the cathedral in Mantua that Giulio Romano began in 1545. In the early 1550s he was put in charge of decorating the church's interior and came up with a proposal for ten altarpieces to be commissioned both from local artists like Ippolito Costa and Fermo Ghisoni, and from foreign painters. The latter group included Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli . . . Giulio Campi . . . Battista [Angolo] del Moro, Domenico Brusasorci [also called Domenico Riccio], Paolo Farinati, and the very young Paolo Veronese. Only twenty-four at the time, Veronese's altarpiece, now in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Caen, offered the faithful a surprisingly intense and violent vision of The Temptation of Saint Anthony."
– from The Art of Mantua: Power and Patronage in the Renaissance by Barbara Furlotti and Guido Rebecchini, translated by A. Lawrence Jenkens (Getty, 2008)
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| Paolo Veronese Temptation of St Anthony ca. 1552-53 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen |
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| Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli Conversion of St Paul ca. 1560 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
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| Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli Conversion of St Paul (detail) ca. 1560 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
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| Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli Conversion of St Paul (detail) ca. 1560 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
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| Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli The Annunciation ca. 1540 oil on panel Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan |
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| Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli The Annunciation (detail) ca. 1540 oil on panel Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan |
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| Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli The Annunciation (detail) ca. 1540 oil on panel Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan |