MANTEGNA'S CAMERA DEGLI SPOSI II A: TWO FAMILY WALLS

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MANTEGNA's CAMERA DEGLI SPOSI II A:  TWO FAMILY WALLS

Two of the walls in Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi are portraying family events in the life of the Gonzaga. Because Mantegna worked on the frescoes in Mantua for nine years, from 1465-74, the art historical speculation about what those family events are has differed. We know the north wall with the family above the fireplace was finished by 1470 because there are reports about it then sent to other city states. The west wall was probably painted from 1472-4. Since the court scene above the fireplace was painted first, several events are suggested for what is happening there:

LEFT SECTION OF NORTH WALL (by 1470):
Theories about what is taking place:

1) Camarlengo Marsilio Andreasi brings a letter announcing to the Duke that his son, Francesco, has been made a Cardinal in Rome, something that actually happened December 22 of 1461.

The main scene on the left wall then might be the arrival of the new Cardinal in Mantua in 1461 where he is greeted by his father, Ludovico, and other family members.

The problem with this theory is that the grandchildren of the Duke are alive and present in this second scene: and the older grandson is probably 6, the younger one 3, ages they would have been in 1472, not 1461 or 1470.  
2) Camarlengo brings a letter from the Milanese Duke Francesco Sforza's wife to say Sforza's ill and needs the military help of Duke Gonzaga, condottiere; the date for a specific letter found in the Mantua archives from the Milanese Duke is December 30, 1461. Following this letter, according to this theory, the Gonzaga Duke rode to Bozzolo on the way to Milan the day after receiving the letter and there met with his son, Francesco, who had come from Rome to meet him. (The story of the ride to Bozzolo does not fit the scene, however, because Bozzolo's landscape is entirely flat, and not close enough to Mantua to imagine the Duke stepping out of his military pavilion.)  Since his second son had just been made Cardinal in the same year, 1461, the meeting painted on the left wall, according to this theory could also be Ludovico greeting Francesco for the first time since he has been made Cardinal. Again, though, the ages of the grandchildren do not fit with the year 1461 but rather with the year 1472.
3) Camarlengo brings the Duke the contract for the painter Mantegna to paint the
room, and they discuss if the Duke should sign the contract, including the commission for the left wall.
4) A new suggestion for the left wall may relate to the right wall; since the left wall is painted later, probably between 1472 and 74, the theory is that the scene
on the left is a later event, one that shows the Duke greeting his son, already Cardinal Francesco, when Francesco is given the Commendam of the abbey church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua in 1472. This theory would mean that Francesco has come to Mantua for that reward (he holds a letter in his hand that could be the office of Sant'Andrea) which also implies that he will visit his parents in Mantua more often now. The theory of a later event would explain the ages of  Francesco's nephews in the scene and might explain his affectionate treatment of his brother and nephews in that scene. This new suggestion would not change the message in the hand of the Duke on the right wall, though. Since we have documentation that the right wall was already complete by 1470, the message would still be the earlier announcement of the Cardinalship, not the gift of  Sant'Andrea to the Cardinal.
 
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE?
LEFT SECTION, NORTH WALL:

 
We've mentioned the secretary, Camarlengo Marsilio Andreasi speaking to the seated Duke. Then standing behind the two children in a red hat is the Duke's first son, Federico, age 29 in 1470, whose position as heir is underscored by the plant with branches springing up behind his head. We can compare his features with those in a portrait that is labelled with his name. (For many of the identifications, I have relied on the collection of period-labelled Gonzaga portraits that are now in the Collezione di Ambras, Castle of Ambras, Innsbruck.)

 

Federico's two hands are on his brother, Ludovichino, age 10 in 1470, whose clerical gown shows he is destined for the church like his Cardinal brother. Below both of them is their sister, Paola, age 7 in 1470. Paola holds out an apple to her mother, Barbara of Brandenburg, seated in gold brocade, who looks intently at her husband the Duke.


In the black hat behind the mother is the tutor of her children, Vittorino da Feltre, who looks down, and next to him to the right in a red hat is the third oldest son, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, 24, who stands behind his mother's chair:
 
 
Gianfrancesco's sister, Barbara, 15, stands next to him and behind her is her nursemaid. Below them is the family dwarf.

Two more figures stand to the right of the dwarf. The far right blond boy can be identified as Rodolfo, the 4th son of Ludovico, age 19 in 1470, but the identity of the boy behind him in the same livery is not known, probably another son of Ludovico. Rodolfo can be identified by one of the Innsbruck portraits when we flip it:

 

The whole family is gathered together as if for a reunion to celebrate good news.
Even the family dog, Rubino (Reddish is his name for his fur color,) is settled underneath the chair of the Duke.


Certainly the birth of the first grandson, Francesco II, in 1466, or that of the second grandson (heir and a spare), Sigismundo, in 1469, would be cause
for family gathering and celebration. But since everyone is serious in the scene, perhaps the letter held in the hand of the Duke is the announcement about one person missing in this wall's image, the Cardinal Francesco, who would have been in Rome. The Cardinalship would have given the whole family a feeling that now they belonged to the Roman world of the emperors depicted on the ceiling.  For me then, the
SUBJECT of NORTH WALL, left side is:
ANNOUNCEMENT OF newly appointed CARDINAL FRANCESCO GONZAGA, December 1461, all painted by 1470.
SUBJECT OF WEST WALL, right side is:
RETURN OF CARDINAL to the abbey church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua and to his family, in 1472, all painted 1472-74.

The WEST WALL, then shows the horse of the Duke on the left with the grooms, a subject repeated from Piero della Francesca's scene of the Queen of Sheba Kneeling in his frescoes in Arezzo.

 

On the right side of that wall, the Duke has just gotten down from his horse and stands with his right hand lifted in greeting to Francesco. Over on the far right of that scene stands the Duke's heir, Federico Gonzaga, facing his father, Ludovico, and in front of Ludovico are other sons and grandsons.

Ludovico greets one son, the Cardinal, and faces the first-born son, Federico, and together their profile portraits bracket the scene standing, with Cardinal Francesco the largest standing figure in between them.
 

The two grandsons in front of the Duke

 

are six-year old Francesco II, who later commissions his own altarpiece from Mantegna, the Madonna of Victory, in 1496:

 

and Sigismondo, age 3, who later is made a Cardinal like his uncle:

Sigismondo's connection to the church life is demonstrated by his reaching out and touching the hand of a younger uncle, Ludovichino, 12, whose portrait we
saw in the 1470 part of the fresco, and whose portrait is painted separately by Mantegna around the same time.

                             
Duke Ludovico, then, with three of his sons facing him, and two of his grandsons

as children. The three prelates in the family in the middle, the condottieres outside that group.

The only other two important people in this scene are on the right, shown here
with yellow arrows.
The one on the right is Barbara Brandenburg's brother-in-law, King Christian
of Denmark:

 

The one on the left in profile is the Holy Roman Emperor in 1472, Frederick III.

A flipped coin of Frederick with his same profile shows the underbite that Mantegna so carefully captured in his own portrait:

While both these men were probably not present for the greeting of the Cardinal,
Mantegna includes them as a way of paying them compliments in case they
were ever to come to see the room.
Future prelates, present king and emperor, the Duke and his heir, all standing
in a landscape that represents Rome on a hill, as a new Mantua, conceived as
an ideal city with Roman statues and buildings.

And in the middle of the frescoed gathering, the new Cardinal is the largest figure, the second son whose great honor in Rome has brought Rome to Mantua for his father.

The family is meeting inside the military tent on the North wall and just outside it on the West wall. Aware of their prosperity and self-advertisement, but also
keen to show the family's closeness and humanity, the figures who inhabit the room are displayed in poses meant to represent the "bella figura" of Italian life.

The painter is not included in either wall scene or on the ceiling. He keeps himself almost invisible, a sprite whose face magically appears amid the
foliate decoration next to the Return. He asks the viewer to find him and
once we do, he looks out at us, spying upon everyone in the room.

He deliberately chooses not to place himself in the Florentine position for the artist's self-portrait, over on the right looking out. He forces the viewer to look around the whole room for him. He plays with the spectator in both the horse's eyes and his own, knowing that he has the last laugh because he is spying on us as we look over his work.
BUT WHAT OF THE RIGHT SECTION OF THE NORTH WALL?
The next blog entry will uncover the mystery of that part of the room.