DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0199
MANTEGNA’S PARNASSUS
161
among the temples of the Ionian Isles, reached Mantua
in response to her urgent request. She did not scruple
to ask Caesar Borgia, who drove out Duke Guidobaldo,
or the Pallavicini, who betrayed her brother-in-law,
to give her the spoils of Milan and Urbino. The
greatest painters, the most distinguished sculptors
and goldsmiths of the day, Mantegna, Bellini,
Perugino, Costa, Michel Angelo, Cristoforo Romano,
Raphael himself, were all in turn desired to contrib-
ute some picture or statue to the decoration of the
Grotta. Often she met with refusals, oftener still
with delays and disappointments, but still she perse-
vered with the unwearied ardour, the indomitable
passion of the true collector. First of all she began
with Mantegna. Of all living masters, none shared
Isabella’s enthusiasm for antiquity or was more truly
inspired with classic feeling than this old servant of
the Gonzagas. Since his return from Rome he had
been too busily engaged on the Triumphs, and the
decoration of Francesco’s villas at Marmirolo and
Gonzaga, to work for the Marchesa, and the one
portrait which he had painted, had failed to satisfy
her critical taste. But the task which she gave him
now appealed in a peculiar manner to his imagination,
and in the two magnificent tempera paintings which
he executed for the Marchesa’s new studio, the aged
master rose to new heights of creative power and
romantic invention. In the one, Venus the Queen
of Love is throned on the green slopes of Parnassus
by the side of Mars, the God of War, and at the
foot of the sacred mount, Apollo and the Muses
celebrate her triumph in joyous songs and dances.
A drawing of the central figure in the lower group
by Mantegna’s pen has been preserved at Munich,
vol. i. l
161
among the temples of the Ionian Isles, reached Mantua
in response to her urgent request. She did not scruple
to ask Caesar Borgia, who drove out Duke Guidobaldo,
or the Pallavicini, who betrayed her brother-in-law,
to give her the spoils of Milan and Urbino. The
greatest painters, the most distinguished sculptors
and goldsmiths of the day, Mantegna, Bellini,
Perugino, Costa, Michel Angelo, Cristoforo Romano,
Raphael himself, were all in turn desired to contrib-
ute some picture or statue to the decoration of the
Grotta. Often she met with refusals, oftener still
with delays and disappointments, but still she perse-
vered with the unwearied ardour, the indomitable
passion of the true collector. First of all she began
with Mantegna. Of all living masters, none shared
Isabella’s enthusiasm for antiquity or was more truly
inspired with classic feeling than this old servant of
the Gonzagas. Since his return from Rome he had
been too busily engaged on the Triumphs, and the
decoration of Francesco’s villas at Marmirolo and
Gonzaga, to work for the Marchesa, and the one
portrait which he had painted, had failed to satisfy
her critical taste. But the task which she gave him
now appealed in a peculiar manner to his imagination,
and in the two magnificent tempera paintings which
he executed for the Marchesa’s new studio, the aged
master rose to new heights of creative power and
romantic invention. In the one, Venus the Queen
of Love is throned on the green slopes of Parnassus
by the side of Mars, the God of War, and at the
foot of the sacred mount, Apollo and the Muses
celebrate her triumph in joyous songs and dances.
A drawing of the central figure in the lower group
by Mantegna’s pen has been preserved at Munich,
vol. i. l