DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0063
SALA DEGLI SPOSI
35
“ Orfeo,” composed by him in three days, was acted
for the first time on this occasion. The event was
commemorated by Mantegna in a still more splendid
form in the frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi, which
were completed in 1474, as recorded in the proud
inscription placed by the painter on a tablet, held by
winged boys, over the door: “ To the illustrious
Lodovico II., Marquis of Mantua, most excellent
prince, in the faith invincible, and his illustrious
wife, Barbara, the incomparable glory of women.
Their Andrea Mantegna of Padua has completed
this humble work to their honour. 1474.”
Here, in the Marquis’s own nuptial chamber, in
the corner tower of the Castello, the great master has
left us a living record of the Gonzaga family. The
painter’s genius has transformed this small room in
the heart of the grim old fortress into a fairy bower,
decorated with garlands and tapestries, where sportive
loves play on a marble parapet under the blue sky.
On one wall the reception of a foreign ambassador,
probably the envoy sent by the Duke of Wiirtem-
berg to ask for the hand of Lodovico’s daughter
Barbara, is represented. A secretary is seen handing
the letter to the good prince, who, with his wife at
his side, is seated in true patriarchal fashion under an
open loggia on the garden terrace, surrounded by his
children and grandchildren, his courtiers and pet
dwarfs. His eldest son, Federico, advances to re-
ceive the German ambassador, while the bride-elect,
standing behind her mother’s chair, turns her eyes
with eager gaze in the same direction. On the op-
posite wall of the nuptial chamber, a second fresco
commemorates the arrival of the young Cardinal and
his suite of servants on his return from Rome. The
35
“ Orfeo,” composed by him in three days, was acted
for the first time on this occasion. The event was
commemorated by Mantegna in a still more splendid
form in the frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi, which
were completed in 1474, as recorded in the proud
inscription placed by the painter on a tablet, held by
winged boys, over the door: “ To the illustrious
Lodovico II., Marquis of Mantua, most excellent
prince, in the faith invincible, and his illustrious
wife, Barbara, the incomparable glory of women.
Their Andrea Mantegna of Padua has completed
this humble work to their honour. 1474.”
Here, in the Marquis’s own nuptial chamber, in
the corner tower of the Castello, the great master has
left us a living record of the Gonzaga family. The
painter’s genius has transformed this small room in
the heart of the grim old fortress into a fairy bower,
decorated with garlands and tapestries, where sportive
loves play on a marble parapet under the blue sky.
On one wall the reception of a foreign ambassador,
probably the envoy sent by the Duke of Wiirtem-
berg to ask for the hand of Lodovico’s daughter
Barbara, is represented. A secretary is seen handing
the letter to the good prince, who, with his wife at
his side, is seated in true patriarchal fashion under an
open loggia on the garden terrace, surrounded by his
children and grandchildren, his courtiers and pet
dwarfs. His eldest son, Federico, advances to re-
ceive the German ambassador, while the bride-elect,
standing behind her mother’s chair, turns her eyes
with eager gaze in the same direction. On the op-
posite wall of the nuptial chamber, a second fresco
commemorates the arrival of the young Cardinal and
his suite of servants on his return from Rome. The