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| Anonymous Italian Artist Portrait of Ferdinando Gonzaga ca. 1610-15 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna |
"As a second son Ferdinando Gonzaga was destined from a young age for an ecclesiastical career, and his education was more careful and complete than that of the other scions of the dynasty. . . . In 1601, at the age of fourteen, his intellectual prowess allowed Ferdinando to attend the university in Ingolstadt, Germany, were he excelled in ecclesiastical studies. While there – and between his studies, ball games, concerts, and religious celebrations – Ferdinando found the time to begin a small collection of art. This was the first manifestation of what, over the years, would develop into a passion for collecting, the equal of, if not superior to, that of his father, Vincenzo."
"Although Pope Paul V (Camillo Borghese) had made Ferdinando a cardinal in December 1607, the latter did not move to Rome until 1610. . . . The models that captivated the young Gonzaga cardinal were his early mentors in the cardinalate, Alessandro Peretti and Scipione Borghese. On the one hand, their example was hard to emulate, because, unlike Ferdinando, they were both true princes of the Church: the nephews of popes, vastly wealthy and powerful men, sophisticated collectors and illustrious patrons of art. On the other hand, they encouraged Ferdinando's curious spirit; they introduced him into cultured circles and invited him to study works by the most esteemed artists in Rome."
"The year 1612 was a tragic one for the Gonzaga family. Duke Vincenzo died in February, and numerous members of the family followed him to the grave in short succession: his beloved illegitimate son, Silvio; the duke's infant grandson, Ludovico; and finally his son and heir, Francesco, who succumbed to smallpox after just ten months on the throne. . . . The early demise of Duke Francesco put Vincenzo's second son in a totally unexpected and unwanted position. The prospect of leaving the Church and Rome in order to administer the small duchy of Mantua must not have seemed very appealing to Ferdinando; he stalled for four years, until 1616, before officially resigning his position as cardinal."
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| Domenico Fetti Idealized Posthumous Portrait of Federico Gonzaga, 1st Duke of Mantua (imitating the style of Federico's contemporary, Titian) ca. 1620 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Domenico Fetti Hero mourning the dead Leander 1621-22 oil on panel (created for Ferdinando Gonzaga as a furniture panel) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Domenico Fetti Perseus rescuing Andromeda ca. 1620-22 oil on panel (created for Ferdinando Gonzaga as a furniture panel) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Domenico Fetti Galatea and Polyphemus ca. 1620-22 oil on panel (created for Ferdinando Gonzaga as a furniture panel) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
"Ferdinando met Domenico Fetti in Rome in 1611 and liked his work: he apparently sensed potential in this young man, just over twenty years old. After the duke returned to Mantua he invited Fetti to join his court, as Raffaella Morselli has described it, as "companion and interpreter of the duke's infinite passions and infinite projects." For Fetti, who was trained in a Florentine tradition embodied by Cigoli, the opportunity to study the masterpieces in the Gonzaga collection brought about a significant acceleration in his stylistic maturation. Indeed he learned much from the delicate colorism of the Venetian painters, from Rubens's expressive power and sure brushwork, and from the most analytical northern painters. He also made useful visits to nearby cities like Verona, Modena, and especially Venice, which became a frequent destination for his peregrinations and ultimately would be his final home. His painting of the emperor Domitian, now in the Louvre, may date from this period of his studies, because it seems to reflect his desire to emulate the great masters of the past. Indeed Fetti made his painting to complete Titian's series of Caesars, which had been left without the last emperor by its original author."
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| Domenico Fetti Emperor Domitian ca. 1616-17 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
"Domenico Fetti's abilities were appreciated by other members of the ruling family and especially by Ferdinando's aunt, Margherita Gonzaga. After the death of her husband, Alfonso II, duke of Ferrara, in 1598, Margherita returned to Mantua. There, following the example of other virtuous noble widows, she dedicated herself to pious and charitable activities, the most impressive of which was the founding of a new convent dedicated to Saint Ursula. . . . Some years later, she asked Ferdinando to allow Fetti to work for her at the convent. He executed several works for the church and convent: the two most important are the big lunette representing The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes and Margherita Gonzaga Receiving the Model of the Church of Satin Ursula from Antonio Maria Viani, now in the Palazzo Ducale."
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| Domenico Fetti Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes ca. 1615 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
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| Domenico Fetti Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes (detail) ca. 1615 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
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| Domenico Fetti Margherita Gonzaga receiving the Model of the Church of Saint Ursula from Antonio Maria Viani ca. 1615 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
"To decorate the galleries and halls of this palace of delights [the new-built Villa La Favorita] the duke was constantly searching for artists who specialized in fresco painting. His first choice was again Guido Reni, whose works, as he wrote to the cardinal legate of Bologna in 1617, "I had seen in Rome, which satisfied me and gave me the desire to have him paint in one of my villas." The duke's wishes, however, were once again to remain unfulfilled because the Bolognese painter made it clear he would no longer paint in fresco, "because of some mortal illnesses" contracted in the course of such work. He was, however, willing to make a cycle of large canvases, which have been identified with The Labors of Hercules, now in the Louvre."
"These four pictures were made between 1617 and 1620 and not without some disputes between the duke and the artist. These disagreements centered on the schedule and means of payment and were exacerbated by the tendency of the duke to be insolvent and the artist, who was addicted to gambling, to be chronically short of funds. . . . In each scene the setting is neglected in favor of the monumental representation of the figures, which become the entire focus of the viewer's attention. They derive from the examples of Hellenistic sculpture that Reni would have studied during his time in Rome, and they dominate the picture plane with their powerful anatomies and deliberate gestures."
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| Guido Reni Hercules vanquishing the Hydra of Lerna 1617-20 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Guido Reni Abduction of Dejanira by the Centaur Nessus 1617-20 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Guido Reni Hercules defeating Achelous 1617-20 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Guido Reni Hercules on the Pyre 1617-20 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
"Despite the difficulties in their relationship, the duke was pleased with The Labors of Hercules, and in 1621 gave Reni another commission, probably meant to decorate rooms in the Palazzo Ducale. The two canvases that resulted from this commission were also inspired by Greek myths; they were The Toilet of Venus, now in the National Gallery in London, and a Judgment of Paris, which seems to be lost. Although the two painting were intended as pendant pieces, only The Toilet of Venus was finally sent to Mantua in 1623, perhaps because of the inflated price the painter asked for them. He claimed they were worth seven hundred ducatoni (silver crowns) each, because of their size and the number of figures they contained. The price seems too high, given that the canvas was in large part executed by his workshop; Guido's hand is only identifiable in the principal figure of Venus."
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| Guido Reni and workshop The Toilet of Venus 1621-23 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
"Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino, was just emerging at this time as the most gifted of Reni's rivals. At the duke's invitation, Guercino painted Erminia and the Shepherd for the Mantuan court (now in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery) in 1619-20. The painting was inspired by a passage from Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata in which the pagan princess Erminia, who had escaped from the crusader's camp, meets a shepherd engaged in weaving wicker baskets, who entertains her with stories of life in Arcadia."
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| Guercino Erminia and the Shepherd 1619-20 oil on canvas Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, West Midlands |
"Ferdinando Gonzaga died unexpectedly on October 29, 1626, thirty-nine years old and childless. The duchy thus passed to his younger brother, Vincenzo. His demise, after only thirteen years as duke, marks the end of the golden age of the small Gonzaga state, a period in which the court of Mantua had been an artistic and cultural model for all of Europe."
– 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)