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| attributed to Jean Bahuet Portrait of Vincenzo Gonzaga, 4th Duke of Mantua ca. 1587 oil on canvas private collection |
"Vincenzo Gonzaga (1562-1612) was installed as duke of Mantua on September 22, 1587 – his twenty-fifth birthday and just a little more than a month after the death of his father, Guglielmo. The expenses for the event were exorbitant . . . the young duke's robes for the occasion were a sartorial masterpiece, costing an astronomical thirty thousand scudi. His white satin suit and floor-length mantle were embroidered all over with pearls and gold thread, and the mantle included a small white-fur cape, a symbol of ducal authority. Vincenzo's crown was encrusted with pearls and precious gems, including a ruby said to be worth fifteen thousand scudi. The new duke is immortalized in a full-length portrait, now in a private collection, which may have been executed by the Flemish painter Giannino [Jean] Bahuet, whom Guglielmo Gonzaga had engaged as court portraitist in 1579."
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| Jean Bahuet Portrait of Eleonora de' Medici, Duchess of Mantua ca. 1585-90 oil on panel Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
"Vincenzo did not act alone in his ambitious project to launch the Gonzaga dynasty onto the international stage. His first and unfortunate marriage to Margherita Farnese, princess of Parma and Piacenza, was annulled because of her inability to bear children. Vincenzo then wed Eleonora, daughter of Francesco de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, in 1584. In addition to influencing the formation and refinement of his artistic sensibilities, Eleonora also had a hand in his complex and successful program of cultural politics. She had received a careful education in the refined milieu of Florence, and her tastes were formed amid her family's peerless art collection. She had also learned how to negotiate with the many artists who worked at court."
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| Peter Paul Rubens The Gonzaga Family adoring the Holy Trinity 1604-1605 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
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| Peter Paul Rubens The Gonzaga Family adoring the Holy Trinity (detail with portraits of Vincenzo and Guglielmo Gonzaga) 1604-1605 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
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| Peter Paul Rubens The Gonzaga Family adoring the Holy Trinity (detail with portraits of Eleonora of Austria and Eleonora de' Medici) 1604-1605 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
"Shortly after his return to Mantua early in 1604, Rubens received the commission for a series of three paintings for the church of the Santissima Trinità, and he worked on these canvases from August 1604 to May 1605. . . . The triptych that Rubens painted cost the duke the significant sum of 1,300 ducats, and it was unveiled on June 5, 1605, at the feast of the Holy Trinity. The canvases are full of references to and citations from the works of Renaissance masters Rubens studied during his Italian sojourn. . . . From left to right, they are The Baptism of Christ, now in Antwerp; The Gonzaga Family Adoring the Holy Trinity, the only painting still in Mantua and now in the Palazzo Ducale; and The Transfiguration of Christ, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy."
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| Peter Paul Rubens The Baptism of Christ 1604-1605 oil on canvas Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp |
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| Peter Paul Rubens The Transfiguration of Christ 1604-1605 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Portrait of Vincenzo Gonzaga, later 7th Duke of Mantua (son of Vincenzo Gonzaga, 4th Duke of Mantua and Eleonora de' Medici) ca. 1605 oil on canvas, mounted on panel National Trust, Saltram House, Devon |
"While in Rome, Rubens acquired paintings for the Gonzaga collection, including in 1607 Caravaggio's Death of the Virgin, now in the Louvre, an extraordinarily realistic painting of enormous emotional impact and one that had caused a great scandal in the papal capital. The painting was originally made for the church of Santa Maria della Scala, but the monks there refused to accept it because of the excessive naturalism of the sacred scene and because of the disturbing rumors in the city that the artist had used as his model for the Virgin the swollen, bloated body of a prostitute who had drowned in the Tiber. At the same time, however, the work also raised interest among a variety of collectors who tried in vain to obtain it, and it enjoyed the approbation of much of the Roman artistic world Indeed, the duke's ambassador was forced to delay sending the canvas to Mantua and to open his private house to the public for a week so that all who wished could see the masterpiece."
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| Caravaggio Death of the Virgin ca. 1606 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
"The duke especially wanted to acquire a work by Raphael, the artist whom he believed captured the essence of the Italian Renaissance, an exemplar of grace and harmony. This pursuit preoccupied Vincenzo for several years. It was not so easy, however; the few works by the master that were available were prohibitively expensive, even for a prince with Vincenzo's resources. . . . In 1604, after lengthy negotiations, Vincenzo purchased the ancient sculpture and paintings from the Canossa collection in Verona, including the Holy Family now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. Determined not to let this opportunity slip, the duke let it be known that he was willing to pay an enormous sum of money – some seven thousand scudi – and to confer on the Canossa family both the title of marquis of Cagliano and the territory of Monferrato that came with it. This painting, which the literature today tends to ascribe to Giulio Romano rather than Raphael, shows the Madonna in the foreground casting an affectionate eye on the young Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist, who play in front of her."
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| Raphael and/or Giulio Romano Holy Family (La Perla) 1519-20 oil on panel Museo del Prado, Madrid |
"Acting on his passion for northern European art, Vincenzo invited the Cremonese painter Antonio Maria Viani to come to Mantua as court painter. Viani had spent some years in Munich working for Friedrich Sustris and gaining an appreciation for the most recent German painting. After having proven his ability as a painter in Mantua, Viani was promoted in 1595 to the coveted position of Prefect of Building Works, the position Giulio Romano and Giovanni Battista Bertani had also held. The artist now had a central role within the administration of the small state, supervising architectural and decorative programs throughout the duchy. He oversaw the decoration of the Gonzaga palaces, and he was also in charge of designing the fortifications for distant Casale Monferrato, maintaining the embankments along the Po, and organizing the musicians and actors who performed in the frequent spectacles at the Gonzaga court."
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| Antonio Maria Viani Archangel Michael casting out Lucifer 1594 oil on canvas Palazzo Ducale, Mantua |
"In Brussels in 1599 Vincenzo met the painter Frans Pourbus the Younger, a courtly and sophisticated portraitist in the service of the archduke Albrecht Habsburg. The death of the Flemish painter Giannino [Jean] Bahuet in 1597 had left the position of court portraitist vacant in Mantua, and in 1600 Vincenzo convinced Pourbus to fill it. A specialist in dynastic portraits was an absolute necessity in any princely court at that time. This artist was not only obliged to record the likenesses of the local ruler and his family, but also to exalt the political roles of his subjects by the use of emblematic details in the pictures. Flemish painters had for some time been recognized as the great masters of this genre, adept at acute observation and the painstaking recording of details."
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| Frans Pourbus the Younger Portrait of Vincenzo Gonzaga, 4th Duke of Mantua ca. 1600 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Frans Pourbus the Younger Portrait of Margherita Gonzaga (daughter of Duke Vincenzo and Eleonora de' Medici) ca. 1604-1605 oil on canvas Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence |
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| Frans Pourbus the Younger Portrait of Margherita Gonzaga (daughter of Duke Vincenzo and Eleonora de' Medici) ca. 1605 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| workshop of Frans Pourbus the Younger Portrait of Vincenzo Gonzaga, 4th Duke of Mantua ca. 1600 oil on canvas private collection |
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| workshop of Frans Pourbus the Younger Portrait of Eleonora de' Medici, Duchess of Mantua ca. 1600 oil on canvas private collection |
– 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)