The Ducal Palace complex, famous
threshold of the Gonzaga family, is made up by a
number of buildings, courtyards and gardens gathered
around the Captain Palace and the Magna Domus, the
oldest parts built by the Bonacolsi family and
facing Piazza Sordello.
When the Gonzaga conquered the power in 1328, new
palaces were created, as the one where Pisanello
painted, in the following century, his chivalric
cycle. At the half of the 15th century
Ludovico (1444-1478) moved the court to the San
Giorgio Castle, facing the homonymous bridge and
built at the end of the 14th century by
the engineer Bartolino da Novara.
Pisanello
Ciclo cavalleresco
Giorgio Anselmi
Sala dei Fiumi
In the north-east tower between 1465 and 1474
Andrea Mantegna entirely frescoed the famous Camera Picta (Painted Room) or
Brides’ Room. At
the beginning of the ninth decade Federico I
(1478-1484) committed to the Tuscan architect
Luca Fancelli the Domus Nova palace, facing the
lake, while for Federico II (1519-1540) Giulio
Romano built, close to the castle, the Troy
Apartment, starting point of the whole New Court
Apartment. Duke Guglielmo (1550-1587) son of
Federico, increased in size the whole palace,
and particularly dedicated to the New Court at
the beginning, and later on to the middle ages
apartments in Old Court. The large Castle
Apartment was thus constructed, so called for
its closeness to the castle, and also the big
palatine church dedicated to Santa Barbara was
built, carried out by Giovan Battista Bertani between
1563 and 1572. Guglielmo’s son Vincenzo I
(1587-1612) continued the renewal of the most
ancient parts of the complex and created inside
the Renaissance Domus Nova, between the end of
the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century,
a magnificent series of chambers called Ducal
Apartment. This apartment, projected by the
Prefetto delle Fabbriche Anton Maria Viani, kept
its outstanding importance even during the
Hapsburg domination (from 1708 on), when many
parts of the Old Court were renewed in
neoclassical style.
In the
medieval Captain Palace a new Apartment was prepared in
1612, and at the end of the 17th century Anna
Isabella di Guastalla, wife of the last duke Ferdinando
Carlo (1655-1707), moved in this part of the palace which was after
that to be known as Guastalla Apartment.During the Hapsburg government, and
especially in the second half of the 18th
century, the palace was widely restored according to the
late baroque and neoclassical taste. Dating to this period
are the decorations of the Rivers’ Room and of part
of the Mirrors’ Room. The middle ages Magna Domus
apartment was completely renewed with painted decorations,
tapestries and furnishing. When the Hapsburg were chased
and Mantua became part of the Italian Reign (1866), a
phase of decadence and abandon took over the palace, newly
restored only at the beginning of the 20th
century. The city art collections were thus moved into the
Ducal Palace, in order to fill the huge rooms spoiled from
1627 on; this solution was reached the 11th
march 1915, and has been recently confirmed in a
convention signed the 24th January 2000 between
the Mantua Major and the Art and Culture Minister.
Because of the
enormous size of the complex, two visit itineraries have
been pointed out, a shorter one and a longer one. The
first route, coloured in green, includes the Old Court Apartment,
while the red
route includes the visit of the whole complex (Old
Court, Castle and New Court). Entrance and Exit remain
the same in both.
These parts of the
palace, usually closed to the public, can be visited
in special occasions, sometimes also during the
week-end.
Appartamento di Isabella
in Corte Vecchia / Isabella Apartment in Old
Court
Isabella d’Este, after her
husband’s death (1519), decided to move her
dwellingfrom the Castle to the
ground floor of the Old Court. The visit
includes famous rooms like Camera Grande
or
Scalcheria, frescoed in 1522 by Leonbruno,
Studiolo, where were five paintings
commissioned between 1496 and 1506 to
Mantegna, Lorenzo Costa and Perugino,
Grotta, with original wooden furnishings,
and the charming Giardino Segreto.
Stanze dell'Imperatrice
/ Empress' rooms
The itinerary winds through
the rooms of the Neoclassic Apartment in
the Magna Domus, carried out in 1778 by Paolo
Pozzo for Beatrice d’Este, wife of Ferdinando
d’Austria, and renewed in 1812 with “imperial
style” furnishings for Eugenio Beauharnais.
Particularly interesting are Hercules’ Room,
Dafne’s Room, the Bedchamber, with an
impressive Milan-manufactory early 19th
century bed, and the Bathroom.
Gian Cristoforo Romano, Minerva, Ap.
di Isabella
Appartamento
Grande di Castello (o di Guglielmo) / Large
Castle Apartment
The building was carried
out for Duke Guglielmo following the project
of Giovan Battista Bertani between 1572 and
the 1580. In the refined halls, decorated with
elaborate stuccoes and frescoes with stories
of Mantova and the Gonzaga family, were also
the canvas-paintings representing the Fasti
gonzagheschi, made by Jacopo Tintoretto
between 1578 and 1580 (Camera dei Marchesi).
A sequence of secluded rooms, where ancient
marble sculptures are exhibited, are close to
Loggetta del Tasso and face the
evocative Cortile dei Cani.
Piano
nobile del Castello di San Giorgio / Castle
Noble Floor
The visit includes Isabella
d’Este’s wedding apartment; particularly
you’ll visit theStanza deiSoli,
Stanza di Mezzo, Camera delle Cappe
(or delle Conchiglie), Studiolo,
Grotta and the Chapel, designed by
Giovan Battista Bertani in 1563. Little is
left of the original furnishings of
Studiolo, while in Grotta there’s
still the gilded wooden ceiling, dated
1506-1508. In the Sala delle Armi
you can find a Cima da Conegliano’s polyptych,
while in the Camerino Oscuro and in the
Gabinetto degli Armadi are gathered
frescoes and wooden furnishings from
Palazzina della Paleologa, destroyed in
1899.
La
Rustica: Appartamento della Mostra / The
Rustica: Exhibition Apartment
The
Rustica building, originally connected with
the Troy Apartment, was created by Giulio
Romano between 1538 and 1539 for Federico II
Gonzaga. The itinerary includes the Room of Juppiter’s Loves, the
Orpheus Studiolo, the
Room of the Fish or Neptune Room, the
Exhibition Room, the Room of the Four Columns
and ends in the porch characterized by the
rustic and bulky ashlar masonry. Of particular
interest are the rich stuccoes and the
frescoes of the Orpheus Studiolo, depicting
stories of the mythological poet and musician,
and the decorations of the Neptune Room,
representing sea still lives. In the
Exhibition Room has been recently placed a
collection of antique Greek marbles.
Pietro Paolo Rubens
La famiglia Gonzaga in adorazione della Trinità
THE COLLECTIONS
A great economical crisis occurred to
the Mantua court of Vincenzo II Gonzaga, who was thus
obliged to sell to Charles I of England the best part of
the collections gathered by his forerunners. In 1630 the
Empire armies, after a siege to the city, entered and
looted the Ducal Palace; many art works stolen and
moreover, what was later on collected and bought, Ferdinando Carlo took away
with himself in 1707 when he fled from Mantua. With these
occurrences masterpieces by Mantegna, Perugino, Bellini,
Correggio, Raphael, Titian and Caravaggio left the Palace
and thereafter enriched the most important museums of the
world.When in the end of the 18th
century cult places were suppressed, art works (mainly
paintings) were placed in the Accademia Virgiliana and in
the Ducal Palace. The first collection entered the Museo
Patrio, founded in 1852, and only from 1915 moved in the
Ducal Palace; a part of these art works, connected with
the story of the city, has been recently exposed in the
brand new Museo di Palazzo San Sebastiano. The
paintings and the sculptures actually exhibited in the
Ducal Palace have, except a few rare cases, no relation
with the history of the Palace itself; the pieces spread
all over the complex amount to more than 12.000 units.
Sculptures
The largest number of classical statues
kept in the Palace comes from the Gonzaga palaces of the
district: Marmirolo, la Favorita and especially from the
Sabbioneta palace of Vespasiano Gonzaga. From 1915 on all
these sculptures have been moved to the Ducal Palace; at
present important roman sarcophagi, dating up to I and II
century A.D., are in the Troy Apartment: among them a
Battle between Romans and Gauls (bought in Rome by
Giulio Romano, who also took inspiration from it for his
frescoes of the Troy Room) and a Proserpine Myth,
which belonged to Isabella d’Este.Recently 64 roman busts have been
restored and placed in the Exhibition Gallery; the
Faustina bust, which belonged to Mantegna and to Isabella
d’Este, is exposed instead in her Old Court apartment.Important Greek marbles, sculptures and
bas-reliefs, are in the Exhibition Room of the Estivale
Apartment (actually closed for restoration).
In the museum there is also a large
number of Medieval and Renaissance sculptures kept for
years in the deposits but soon to be exposed: middle ages
marble and fictile pieces are being placed in the so
called Guastalla Apartment inside the Captain Palace;
among them we can remind an early XIII century Virgil, and
a number of pieces from demolished churches of the city.
Part of the Renaissance sculptures will be placed instead
in the Castle, close to the Camera degli Sposi, and another part in the Troy Apartment in New Court. Of
outstanding importance are a marble frieze from Revere,
attributed to Luca Fancelli, a terracotta bust of
Francesco II by Gian Cristoforo Romano, and a Filottete
marble
bas-relief attributed to Tullio Lombardo.
Paintings
Many altarpieces, coming from the
suppression of churches dating to the end of the 18th
century, are exposed in the New Gallery: paintings by
Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (Conversion of Saint Paul),
Anton Maria Viani (Virgin and Saints), Francesco
Borgani (Saint Francis prays the Virgin), Pietro
Martire Neri (Christ in glory between two saints),
Domenico Maria Canuti (Last communion of Saint Jerome)
and Giuseppe Maria Crespi (San Francesco da Sales,
San Francesco Regis).
Close to the gallery, in a smaller chamber are paintings
of the 18th century, canvases by Giuseppe
Bazzani and an altarpiece by Francesco Maria Raineri,
known as the Schivenoglia.In
the Hall of the Archers are the most important paintings
of the collection, the central part of a triptych by
Pietro Paolo Rubens, representing the Gonzaga Family
worshipping the Holy Trinity, an enormous painting by
Domenico Fetti, the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes,
and a sparkling altarpiece by Anton Maria Viani: Saint
Margaret and the Virgin in front of the Holy Trinity.Paintings by Jacopo Palma the Young and
by Sante Peranda, originally in the Mirandola palace of
the Pico family, are in the Ducal Apartment; more
altarpieces from the suppressions of Mantua churches are
in the Saint Barbara Gallery, once a place of outstanding
importance for the exhibition of the Gonzaga collections.
Among the paintings: altarpieces by Francesco Borgani,
Pietro Martire Neri, a series of five canvases from a
cycle painted by Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, and smaller
works by Orazio Samacchini, Teodoro Ghisi. In the
Saint George Castle are exposed Renaissance paintings,
dating from the half of the 15th century to the early 16th
century; of particular interest are the works by Francesco
Bonsignori.
