DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62360#0080
So
ANDREA MANTEGNA
(Plate 8) the figures take a less subordinate place, and
their gestures and attitudes are freer and more spon-
taneous. The tension is relaxed. We are no longer
looking at men of stone, mere accessories to the archi-
tecture. The saint stands firmly planted, his dark green
mantle drawn toga-like round his solid body. The figure
of Caesar is certainly stiff to a fault, as is also the isolated
soldier, in whose stern face, as the bronze mask of S.
Andrea bears witness, we see a portrait of Mantegna
himself. But the attitude and action of the two
guards, and especially of the officer within the marble
paling, are easy and free, the latter being of especial
interest in our analysis of Mantegna’s gradual emanci-
pation. Nothing in this supple figure suggests the
statuesque. The posture is relaxed, the mobile
features express a real emotion of sympathy, and the
whole bears evidence of being a very truthful study
from life. The page, who has put his master’s helmet
on his own small head, from the shadow of which his
eyes gleam merrily out, is also treated very naturally.
In this fresco we get our first glimpse at Mantegna’s
landscape, the peculiarities of which, the rocks with
numerous splittings, and the cone-like hills crowned
with fortresses, are imitated, as we have seen, from
Jacopo Bellini. It is of interest to note that the
inscription on the arch below the carved medallions
is to be found in that master’s Sketch-book, now in
Paris; the same stone -fragment, possibly part of
Squarcione’s collection, having doubtless been copied
by both.
The frescoes of this upper course are bound together
by heavy garlands of leaves and fruits, in which play
ANDREA MANTEGNA
(Plate 8) the figures take a less subordinate place, and
their gestures and attitudes are freer and more spon-
taneous. The tension is relaxed. We are no longer
looking at men of stone, mere accessories to the archi-
tecture. The saint stands firmly planted, his dark green
mantle drawn toga-like round his solid body. The figure
of Caesar is certainly stiff to a fault, as is also the isolated
soldier, in whose stern face, as the bronze mask of S.
Andrea bears witness, we see a portrait of Mantegna
himself. But the attitude and action of the two
guards, and especially of the officer within the marble
paling, are easy and free, the latter being of especial
interest in our analysis of Mantegna’s gradual emanci-
pation. Nothing in this supple figure suggests the
statuesque. The posture is relaxed, the mobile
features express a real emotion of sympathy, and the
whole bears evidence of being a very truthful study
from life. The page, who has put his master’s helmet
on his own small head, from the shadow of which his
eyes gleam merrily out, is also treated very naturally.
In this fresco we get our first glimpse at Mantegna’s
landscape, the peculiarities of which, the rocks with
numerous splittings, and the cone-like hills crowned
with fortresses, are imitated, as we have seen, from
Jacopo Bellini. It is of interest to note that the
inscription on the arch below the carved medallions
is to be found in that master’s Sketch-book, now in
Paris; the same stone -fragment, possibly part of
Squarcione’s collection, having doubtless been copied
by both.
The frescoes of this upper course are bound together
by heavy garlands of leaves and fruits, in which play