CHAPTER VII

PRAISE OF MANTEGNA IN THE RENAISSANCE

The immense authority of Mantegna kept his name on all honor lists of painters long after his death.

Lorenzo of Pavia, writing in 1504 to Isabella d’Este, says of a Madonna by Giovanni Bellini:

“The Painter has made a great effort to do himself honour, chiefly out of respect to M. Andrea Mantegna, and although it is true that in point of invention it cannot compare with the work of Messer Andrea, that most excellent master, I pray Your Excellency to take the picture, both for your own honour and also because of the merit of the work.”

Julia Cartwright, _Isabella d’Este_, New York, 1903, Vol. I, p. 351.

A little later Lorenzo writes:

“And, as I have said before, in point of invention no one can rival Andrea Mantegna, who is indeed a most excellent painter, the foremost of our age. But Zuan Bellini excels in colouring.” l. c. 352.

On Oct. 16, 1506, Lorenzo writes, on learning of Mantegna’s death:

“I am much grieved to hear of the death of our Messer Andrea Mantegna. For indeed we have lost a most excellent man and a second Apelles, but I believe that the Lord God will employ him to make some beautiful work. As for me, I can never hope to see again a finer draughtsman and more original artist.”

Isabella replied:

“Lorenzo,—We were sure that you would grieve over the death of M. Andrea Mantegna, for, as you say, a great light has gone out.”

l. c. I. 369.

TITIAN’S VIEW OF MANTEGNA

As late as 1519, Titian admired the Mantegnas at Mantua. Girolamo da Sestola, Isabella’s music master, writes to her:

“M. Dosso and M. Tiziano, another good master who is making a fine picture here [The Bacchanal, at Madrid] for the Lord Duke, went to Mantua. He saw all Mantegna’s works, and praised them greatly to our signor, and he also praised your studies. But above all, he admired your _Tondo_ [the frescoed ceiling of the Camera degli Sposi, Fig. 219] exceedingly, and calls it the finest thing he has ever seen. Our Signor has one here, but Titian says yours is incomparably the finest.”

l. c. II. 171, 2.

ARIOSTO’S HONOR LIST OF PAINTERS

Ariosto as late as 1515 still includes Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini among the best artists. The list is instructive as to the fallibility of contemporary judgments. The two Dossi and Sebastiano del Piombo today have lost their place in the roll.

“And those who were and still are in our days— Leonardo, Andrea Mantegna, Giambellino, The Dossis, he who chiselled and colored equally Michel, more than mortal, Angel divine, Sebastian, Raphael, Titian who honors No more Cadore, than they Venice and Urbino.” _Orlando Furioso_, Canto XXXIII, 2.

LOMAZZO’S LIST OF GREAT PAINTERS AND THEIR KINDRED POETS

“Each painter has naturally had a genus more conformable to one poet rather than another, and has followed that poet in his work, as it is easy to see in the modern painters. For one sees that Leonardo has expressed the movement and decorum of Homer, Polidoro the grandeur and sweep of Virgil, Michelangelo the profound obscurity of Dante, Raphael the pure majesty of Petrarch, Andrea Mantegna the keen judgment of Sannazaro, Titian the variety of Ariosto, and Gaudenzio Ferrari the devotion which one finds expressed in the books of the saints.”

Paolo Lomazzo, _Trattato dell’ Arte delle Pittura_, Milan, 1584, p. 283.

See also Castiglione’s list in Illustrations to