MANTEGNA. n -ta'nyn, ANDREA ( 1431 1506 ). An Italian painter and line engraver of the early Renaissance, the chief master of the Padua? school. He was born at Vicenza, the son of a peasant named Biagio (Blasius). After the death of his father, at the age of ten he was adopted by the painter Squarcione, whose apprentice and pupil he became. They dis agreed repeatedly, and finally separated, upon the marriage of Andrea with the daughter of Jacopo Bellini, in 1453. I,t is the tendency of the latest criticism to minimize the influence of Squarcione upon Mantegna's art; nevertheless. it is certain that we find all the characteristics of Squareione's school in it. Ile was also in fluenced by the work of Donatello, Paolo Uccellu. and Era Filippo Lipid at Padua, but there is no evidence in his works of the influence of his father-in-law. At the age of seventeen Mantegna was an independent master, practicing his art at Padua, where he remained until the end of 1459.
The chief works of this early Paduan period are his seven mural paintings in the Chapel of Saints James and Christopher, in the Church of the Eremitani, in which the entire progress of his art can be traced. Slautegna's paintings are far superior to those of the other pupils of Squarcione in the chapel, and were as im portant for Northern Italy as the Brancacei frescoes for Florence. Five are from the life of Saint .James, and twa from the life of Saint Christopher. His earliest work is a wall-paint ing representing Saints Bernardinus and An tonius (1452), above the main portal of San Antonio in Padua. Others are the altar-piece of San Giustiniano (1453), containing panels of saints in arched frames. the most prominent of whom is Saint Luke; "Saint Eufentia," in the Museum of Naples; the "Presentation of Christ in the Temple," and the portrait of Cardinal Luigi Scarampi. in the Berlin :Museum. His "riet5," in the Grera at Milan. is a remarkable piece of foreshortening, in which the reclining Saviour is represented with his feet toward the spectator. The altar-piece of Saint Zeno ( 1458 59) has rich classical decoration of columns and garlands; in the centre is the Madonna, sur rounded by angels and by it group of saints on either side. The predella contained a "Cruci fixion" of infinite pathos, now in the Louvre.
which was flanked by "Gethsemane" and the "Resurrection," at present in the Museum of Tours.
In 1459. after repeated invitations from Lodo vivo Gonzaga. Marquis of Mantua, Mantegna removed to that city. where he resided for the remainder of his life. Although very independent and sometimes irritable, he was treated with high honor and great consideration by the Mar quis and his successor, Francesco II., under whose patronage he continued until his death. In 1483 Lorenzo de' Medici visited him, and in I4SS Pope Innocent V111. :summoned him to Rome to decorate the Belvedere Chapel, now destroyed. In 1-190 he returned to Mantua• where he died September 13, 15013. His last years were darkened by financial troubles, consequent upon his building a family chapel in the Church of cant' Andwa.
Ilis chief work at Mantua was the decora tion of the Camera dei Sposi, in the Castello di Corte, finished in 1474. Two of the walls and the ceiling remain. One of these. which is par tially damaged. is covered with a realistic group of the Alarquis, his wife, and the entire Court. The other shows a meeting of the Marquis with Cardinal Francesco Oonzaga. both attended by relatives. The figure's are nearly all in profile and stiff in action, but intensely realistic and of monumental grandeur. The same wall con tains a hunting scene. somewhat damaged, and a group of beautiful genii holding an inscrip tion. The ceiling is richly decorated and eon tains a circular dome painted to represent the open sky. with angels and other figures looking over a parapet. Before going to Rome. Mantegna had also begun his nine cartoon;, the "Triumph of Ca-stir." now in Hampton Court. which he finished soon after his return to Mantua. They are drawn on paper in high colors. to represent, as if in bas-relief, a continuous triumphal pro cession, and were used as hangings. No other monument of the fifteenth century shows such knowledge and feeling for the antique. For Isabella. of Este, Marchioness of Mantua, he painted two pictures in the famous chamber which she furnished with paintings by prominent Italian artists, viz. the "Triumph of Virtue Over Vice" and "Parnassus." the latter containing groups of graceful classical figures in a romantic landscape. Both are now• in the Louvre.