DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0435
DOSSO DOSSI AT MANTUA
891
regret I am unable to satisfy Your Excellency’s wish.
—Your servant, Thaddeus Albanus.”1 Venice,
November 8, 1510.
These interesting letters not only prove the exact
date of Giorgione’s death, but show the priceless
value which the paintings of this short-lived master
had already acquired in the eyes of his countrymen.
Another painter who caught something of Gior-
gione’s romantic invention and poetic feeling often
visited Mantua in Isabella’s life-time. This was
Dosso Dossi, one of Alfonso d’Este’s favourite artists
and an intimate friend of the poet Ariosto, whose
fantastic imagination and magical dreams seem to
live again in such pictures as the Circe and the
Nymph of the Borghese collection. In 1511 Dosso
spent some time at Mantua and painted a fresco in
the palace of San Sebastiano, while the St. William
in armour and a Holy Family at Hampton Court
both came to England from the Gonzaga collection.
And it is of interest to remember that Titian paid his
first visit to Mantua in the company of this Ferrarese
master. Finally, among the painters who worked for
Isabella, we must not forget to mention Caroto and
Francesco Bonsignori, whose names appear so often
in the Marchesa’s letters. Both were of Veronese
birth, but spent many years at Mantua as followers
and assistants of Mantegna, and helped in the decora-
tion of the palaces and churches of the Gonzagas.
In 1513 Bonsignori painted a portrait of the poet
Pistoia by Isabella’s command, while his altar-piece
of the Beata Osanna with the Madonna kneeling at
her feet belongs to a somewhat earlier date. To
Caroto, Morelli ascribes the well-known portrait of
1 Luzio, Arch. St. d. Arte, 1888.
891
regret I am unable to satisfy Your Excellency’s wish.
—Your servant, Thaddeus Albanus.”1 Venice,
November 8, 1510.
These interesting letters not only prove the exact
date of Giorgione’s death, but show the priceless
value which the paintings of this short-lived master
had already acquired in the eyes of his countrymen.
Another painter who caught something of Gior-
gione’s romantic invention and poetic feeling often
visited Mantua in Isabella’s life-time. This was
Dosso Dossi, one of Alfonso d’Este’s favourite artists
and an intimate friend of the poet Ariosto, whose
fantastic imagination and magical dreams seem to
live again in such pictures as the Circe and the
Nymph of the Borghese collection. In 1511 Dosso
spent some time at Mantua and painted a fresco in
the palace of San Sebastiano, while the St. William
in armour and a Holy Family at Hampton Court
both came to England from the Gonzaga collection.
And it is of interest to remember that Titian paid his
first visit to Mantua in the company of this Ferrarese
master. Finally, among the painters who worked for
Isabella, we must not forget to mention Caroto and
Francesco Bonsignori, whose names appear so often
in the Marchesa’s letters. Both were of Veronese
birth, but spent many years at Mantua as followers
and assistants of Mantegna, and helped in the decora-
tion of the palaces and churches of the Gonzagas.
In 1513 Bonsignori painted a portrait of the poet
Pistoia by Isabella’s command, while his altar-piece
of the Beata Osanna with the Madonna kneeling at
her feet belongs to a somewhat earlier date. To
Caroto, Morelli ascribes the well-known portrait of
1 Luzio, Arch. St. d. Arte, 1888.