Ducal palace, Mantua

The Ducal Palace is a complex of buildings from the 14th to the 17th century in Mantua ( Lombardy ), mostly built by the family of Gonzaga as their seat of power. The buildings are connected by corridors and galleries and upgraded by their inner courtyards and gardens. The ensemble comprises 500 rooms to approximately 34,000 m². Especially famous is the palace because of Mantegna's frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi ( Wedding Room ), but also for many other architectural and artistic equipment.

History

The oldest parts of the palace are made in the Palazzo del Capitano, which was built in the early 14th century by Guido Buonacolsi, whose family ruled Mantua from 1271 to 1328, and the Magna Domus. At the end of this century came by Bartolino da Novara, one of the most famous military architect of the time, the Castello di San Giorgio added.

The Domus Nova was a century later completed by Luca Fancelli. He is also responsible for the Corte Nuova ( New Court ), in which the Duke's rooms with the famous frescoes of Giulio Romano are.

The church of Santa Barbara, Palace Chapel ( Basilica Palatina ) of Gonzaga, was designed by Giovan Battista Bertani. In the 16th and 17th century, the architect and painter Maria Viani added the chambers of the Vincenzo I and the so-called space of the Metamorphoses and the Loggia di Eleonora.

The Gonzaga inhabited the palace from 1328 to 1707, when the dynasty died out. Subsequently, the building experienced a rapid decay, a process which could by restoration and its new purpose as a museum be reversed only in the 20th century.

Overview

The entrance is on the Piazza Sordello, where the oldest parts of the building are, the Palazzo del Capitano and Magna Domus. The monumental Scalone delle Duchesse ( Duchess stairs), built in the 17th century and in 1779 expanded by Paolo Pozzo, into the space of Morone, named after the paintings of Veronese Domenico Morone ( 1494), depicting the expulsion of the Bonacolsi in 1328 ( the action takes place on the Piazza Sordello ). In the Piano Nobile, the Stanza di Guastalla is, with a frieze full of frescoes with portraits of the Gonzaga family, which originally extended into the next room, the Camera di Pisanello. Antonio Pisanello was commissioned after 1433 with frescoes that showed a " tournament" and other unfinished scenes.

The Galleria Nuova is a corridor that was built in 1778 by Giuseppe Piermarini to connect the Guastalla - chambers with which the Duke. It houses several altars from the early 16th to the late 18th century by Francesco Borgani, Carlo Bononi, Spagnoletto and others. The gallery closes with the magnificent Sala degli Arcieri (room of the archers ), in what was once the dwelling of Vincenzo. Famous is an altarpiece by Peter Paul Rubens ( 1605 ), originally part of a triptych of the Church of the Holy Trinity in the city, representing the Gonzaga Family in Adoration of the Holy Trinity.

Finally, the Galleria degli Specchi follows ( Hall of Mirrors ): As an open loggia under Vincenzo I built, with neoclassical decoration from 1773 to 1779. The vault is frescoed by two pupils of Guido Reni.