DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62360#0043
CHAPTER II
LIFE IN MANTUA
THE interest of the Marquis in the decoration of his
chapel at the time of Mantegna’s departure from
Padua, leads to the presumption that his first employ-
ment on his arrival in Mantua was the painting of its
altar-piece. This would seem, without doubt, to be the
Tryptych of the Uffizi, which until the siege of
Mantua, still remained in possession of the Gonzaga
family. Another work may also be placed in these
first years, during which the documents are silent— The
Death of the Virgin, now in Madrid, with its view of
the Mantuan lake crossed by the Ponte S. Giorgio.
The first documentary record we have of him is a
letter of December, 1463, dated from Goito, a favourite
hunting castle of the Marquis, on the decoration of
which he was employed. (Now, alas ! so far from any
vestige of his work remaining, the very building itself
has vanished, and only a few ruined walls survive to
show its beautiful position on the banks of the swiftly-
flowing Mincio.) This letter contains a demand for his
salary, unpaid for four months, the first hint at those
financial difficulties which so constantly harassed his
life in Mantua. Lodovico, with his luxurious tastes
and his passion for building, was often short of money,
a time of peace meaning a time of empty treasuries, as
Mantegna many times experienced. On this occasion,
LIFE IN MANTUA
THE interest of the Marquis in the decoration of his
chapel at the time of Mantegna’s departure from
Padua, leads to the presumption that his first employ-
ment on his arrival in Mantua was the painting of its
altar-piece. This would seem, without doubt, to be the
Tryptych of the Uffizi, which until the siege of
Mantua, still remained in possession of the Gonzaga
family. Another work may also be placed in these
first years, during which the documents are silent— The
Death of the Virgin, now in Madrid, with its view of
the Mantuan lake crossed by the Ponte S. Giorgio.
The first documentary record we have of him is a
letter of December, 1463, dated from Goito, a favourite
hunting castle of the Marquis, on the decoration of
which he was employed. (Now, alas ! so far from any
vestige of his work remaining, the very building itself
has vanished, and only a few ruined walls survive to
show its beautiful position on the banks of the swiftly-
flowing Mincio.) This letter contains a demand for his
salary, unpaid for four months, the first hint at those
financial difficulties which so constantly harassed his
life in Mantua. Lodovico, with his luxurious tastes
and his passion for building, was often short of money,
a time of peace meaning a time of empty treasuries, as
Mantegna many times experienced. On this occasion,