Ducal Palace – Wt.-sb. 9.00-17.00, Nd. i pn. 9.00-14.00;
Palazzo del Capitano and Magna Domus form the central part of the once largest palace complex in Europe, Ducal Palace. At the peak of its expansion, the complex occupied 34 thousands of square meters and had over a thousand inhabitants, including a whole entourage of dwarfs. When in 1630 year the palace was plundered by the Habsburgs, they needed eighty carriages, to export located in 500 halls of two thousand works of art. Today, only some of the rooms are open to visitors. Because guides tend to describe everything uncritically, it is best to keep the energy and sobriety of the mind for the most interesting rooms.
In the fourteenth century, the Gonzaga were a family of wealthy peasants, who had large estates and whole hosts of servants. Immediately after the coup d'état, per year 1328, Luigi declared himself Captain of the People, what was immortalized in one of the first paintings, which are seen in the palace. This position soon became hereditary., and the title was replaced by the more majestic title of marquis. At that time, the Gonzaga wanted to make Mantua a residence suitable for their growing influence and commissioned the most famous Renaissance artists., such as Mantegna, painting your portraits. Grandson of Lodovic II, Francesco II, contributed to the further enrichment of the family by renting his troops to other Italian city-states. His wife Isabella d'Este spent this money on a collection of paintings., sculptures and other works of art. During the reign of Isabella's son, Federica II, the Gonzaga state reached the height of power: his marriage to the heiress of the principality of Monferrato brought the family the princely title, and the result of his policy of self-love was the construction of a suburban villa intended for him and his mistress.
Federico's successors were generally less colorful characters, except for Vincenz I., whose debauchery and corruption became the inspiration for the character of the debauched prince in Verdi's opera Rigoletto. After Vincenz 'death, the bankrupt manor was forced to sell many masterpieces from the family collections to the King of England, Charles I (many of them are still in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London). Three years later, the Habsburgs invaded Mantua. The first halls of the palace do not have many attractions, except perhaps discovered in 1969 years under two layers of plaster of a damaged Pisanelli fresco. According to experts, it presents either an episode from the legend of Prince Arthur, or the idealized martial feat of the first marquis, Gianfrancesca Gonzagi. Whether, what was the actual topic, the work radiates energy, and the faces, the costumes and the landscape are rendered so accurately, that it makes a big impression.
Salone dei Fiume is decorated with less flavor (The River Salon), where illusionist, baroque art creates a vision of a garden with painted vines and two fountains that look artificial, surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites. A bit further, at the entrance to Sala dei Specchi (Luster Room), there is a note with the signature of the court musician Vincenz I Gonzaga, Monteverdi, whose new works, like. the first contemporary opera Orpheus (1607), were often performed here. Vincenzo also hired Rubens, in which image, Adoration of the Magi, the Gonzaga family of the year was placed 1604, including Vincenzo himself with his characteristic thin mustache. It was initially a triptych, the other two parts of which were plundered by Napoleonic troops, occupying the city for a short time a year 1797, and the third cut into saleable fragments. Most of these fragments were found, and some have been returned, but there are still some gaps in the picture.
Private apartments Isabełli d'Este, an even greater collector of works of art than Vincenzo, are on the ground floor. It used to house Michelangelo's works, Mantegny i Perugina, but only the permanent decorations of the rooms have survived, tj. inlaid cupboards and beautifully carved ceilings and doors. Isabella was a very ruthless employer and if only one of her artists or craftsmen gave her the slightest reason to believe, that he works too slowly, she immediately threatened to throw him into the dungeon. She was also able to invade and force a dying Mantegna on him, that he would offer her a sculpture, which she especially longed to possess. She showed more respect only to Leonardo da Vinci, who drew two sketches of her character, but he was not persuaded to paint a portrait of Christ on the basis of one of them. Isabella also gathered midgets around her, who were supposed to cheer her up during the absence of her husband during the war. For centuries it was considered, that the series of miniature rooms behind Isabella's apartments were built for her dwarfs; in fact, it is a miniature of the Roman Basilica of St.. John in Lateran, built for Vincenz.
A real palace treasure is located in the nearby Castello di San Giorgio, Mantegna frescoes depicting the Gonzaga family. The most famous, beautifully refurbished, adorn the Camera degli Sposi. In these very realistic works, the Marquis Lodovico and his wife Barbara and her family give the impression of living people, who are busy with something, what is happening or is about to happen. In the main fresco, Lodovico discusses a letter with a courtier, his wife stares at them, the youngest daughter is leaning on her mother's lap and is just starting to eat an apple, and the elder son and daughter (probably Barbarina) they look towards the door, where the ambassador of another court is greeted. The latter fact increases the probability of the hypothesis, that the picture shows the beginning of the negotiations on the marriage of Barbarina. On another fresco, The meeting takes place against the background of a landscape of interestingly shaped rocks and an unreal city with the Gonzaga coat of arms on the gate. Three, separated by artificial pilasters, parts of the work, depict the Gonzaga entourage waiting for Lodovic with dogs and horses, Lodovica welcoming his son Francis, who is just returning from Rome, and the scene of the conferral of Francis, as the first Gonzaga, Cardinal's dignity. Placing in the background the figure of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick III, and the King of Denmark greatly wore the Prince of Milan, who fretted, that the fresco depicts "the two most vile people in the world."”, and his omitted. Lodovic's excuse was this, that he would put a prince there, were it not for his strong criticism of Mantegna's portrait style.
Before the guide takes the group further, it is worth looking at the ceiling painted with the illusionist technique. Two women, looking down from the railing, they keep the tub with plants resting on a pillar in an unstable state of balance, but they make an impression, as if they were going to run her straight into the room. Such a technique was the domain of the next important Gonzaga artist, the author of the decorations in the Palazzo del Te Giulio Romano.