DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0070
40
ANDREA MANTEGNA
Messer Andrea’s paintings, as well as certain heads
in high relief and other antiques in which he seemed
to take great delight.”1
Federico himself treated Mantegna with great
kindness, and wrote affectionately to him when he
was ill in October 1478, telling him to try and get
rid of the fever as soon as he could, but not to trouble
his head about the work at present. He employed
Andrea to decorate his new villa of Marmirolo, and
when in 1484 the Prefect of Rome, Giovanni della
Rovere, a brother-in-law of Duke Guidobaldo of
Urbino, begged Bishop Lodovico Gonzaga for a
picture by Mantegna, that prelate replied that the
painter was unable to comply with his request, since
his time was entirely engaged in painting a hall in
one of the Mantuan palaces. And when Andrea
declined to copy a drawing sent him by Bona, Duchess
of Milan, who begged that he would “ reduce it to a
more elegant form,” the Marquis excused his some-
what blunt refusal, saying that “these excellent
masters are often somewhat fantastic in humour, and
that we must be content to take what they choose
to give us.”2 Federico intended at one time to make
considerable additions to the Castello, and wrote to
ask his father’s old friend Federico di Montefeltro
for a plan of his famous palace of Urbino, but
the execution of this project and many others
was hindered by the constant wars which ex-
hausted his treasury. His old tutor Filelfo often
reproached him with his parsimony, saying that the
Marquis had never forgiven him for complaining to
1 Archivio Gonzaga, quoted by A. Baschet, Gazette des Beaux
Arts, 1866.
2 Archivio Gonzaga, lib. xcix., quoted by A. Baschet, &c.
ANDREA MANTEGNA
Messer Andrea’s paintings, as well as certain heads
in high relief and other antiques in which he seemed
to take great delight.”1
Federico himself treated Mantegna with great
kindness, and wrote affectionately to him when he
was ill in October 1478, telling him to try and get
rid of the fever as soon as he could, but not to trouble
his head about the work at present. He employed
Andrea to decorate his new villa of Marmirolo, and
when in 1484 the Prefect of Rome, Giovanni della
Rovere, a brother-in-law of Duke Guidobaldo of
Urbino, begged Bishop Lodovico Gonzaga for a
picture by Mantegna, that prelate replied that the
painter was unable to comply with his request, since
his time was entirely engaged in painting a hall in
one of the Mantuan palaces. And when Andrea
declined to copy a drawing sent him by Bona, Duchess
of Milan, who begged that he would “ reduce it to a
more elegant form,” the Marquis excused his some-
what blunt refusal, saying that “these excellent
masters are often somewhat fantastic in humour, and
that we must be content to take what they choose
to give us.”2 Federico intended at one time to make
considerable additions to the Castello, and wrote to
ask his father’s old friend Federico di Montefeltro
for a plan of his famous palace of Urbino, but
the execution of this project and many others
was hindered by the constant wars which ex-
hausted his treasury. His old tutor Filelfo often
reproached him with his parsimony, saying that the
Marquis had never forgiven him for complaining to
1 Archivio Gonzaga, quoted by A. Baschet, Gazette des Beaux
Arts, 1866.
2 Archivio Gonzaga, lib. xcix., quoted by A. Baschet, &c.