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32-398: Villa La Favorita was constructed between 1615 (or 1613) and 1624 by Duke Ferdinand Gonzaga, who intended to move his court from the ducal palace to here. It was built on the outskirts of Mantua, but not too far, just on the other side of the lakes that surround the city. The ducal architect, Nicolò Sebregondi, provided the design and was responsible for the overseeing the building. The palace

64-632: A few panels, mainly depicting public festivals or tournaments with crowds of small figures. One of his masterpieces is the canvas celebrating the Cacciata dei Bonacolsi (1494) (or Expulsion of the Bonacolsi in 1328, scene of Piazza Sordello, Mantua ) in the Ducal Palace of Mantua . Two small cassone panels depicting the Rape of Sabine women dated to c.1490 and attributed to Morone were bought by

96-464: Is now used for hospitality purposes. 45°11′06″N 10°48′06″E  /  45.1849°N 10.8016°E  / 45.1849; 10.8016 Ducal Palace, Mantua The Palazzo Ducale di Mantova ("Ducal Palace") is a group of buildings in Mantua , Lombardy , northern Italy , built between the 14th and the 17th century mainly by the noble family of Gonzaga as their royal residence in

128-513: Is thought to have been used for performances of Monteverdi's music in the late 16th century. The entrance of the palace is from Piazza Sordello, onto which the most ancient buildings, the Palazzo del Capitano and the Magna Domus , open. They formed the original nucleus of the so-called Corte Vecchia . The Palazzo del Capitano ("Captain's Palace") was built in the late 13th century by

160-528: The Camera degli Sposi (Wedding Room), they have many other very significant architectural and painted elements. The Gonzaga family lived in the palace from 1328 to 1707, when the dynasty died out. Subsequently, the buildings saw a sharp decline, which was halted in the 20th century with a continuing process of restoration and the designation of the area as museum. In 1998, a hidden room was discovered by Palace scholars, led by musicologist Paula Bezzutti . The room

192-524: The Corte Vecchia for the Council of Mantua called by Pope Pius II , restored the castle, which definitely lost its military and defensive function. The Camera Picta (Latin: "Painted Chamber") or Camera degli Sposi (Italian: "Bridal Chamber") is the most famous room of the palace, known for its frescoes executed by Andrea Mantegna , from 1465 to 1475, as attested by slab celebrating the end of

224-634: The Galleria degli Specchi ("Hall of Mirrors"), built as an open loggia under Vincenzo I, with frescoes by two pupils of Guido Reni and neoclassicist decoration dating from 1773–79. Under his apartment in the Domus Nova , Vincenzo Gonzaga's son, Cardinal (later Duke) Ferdinand (1587–1626) had Viani design a series of ever-smaller rooms, long known as the Appartamento dei nani ("Dwarves' Apartments") and believed to have been built to house

256-597: The National Gallery, London in 1886 and remain in its collections. He was particularly prolific at the church of San Bernardino, Verona , painting a Madonna for the shutters of its organ (acquired with the Edward Solly collection by Berlin State Museums ) and producing the frescoes for its chapel of Sant' Antonio, as well as leading the project to fresco its Franciscan library, with several of

288-635: The Captain of the People Guido Buonacolsi (whose family ruled Mantua from 1271 to 1328). Initially built on two floors and separated from the Magna Domus (Latin: "Big House") by an alley, in the early 14th century it received a further floor and was united to the Magna Domus by a large façade with a portico. The additional floor consists of a huge hall (67x15 m), known as "Hall of the Weapon Room" of "Hall of Diet", as it housed

320-635: The Castle of St. George to this older sector of the Gonzaga palace, in the so-called "Widow Apartment". Isabella's apartment included two wings now divided by the entrance to the Cortile d'Onore ("Honour Court"). The "Grotto Wing" housed the wooden furnitures and the paintings from her famous studiolo , commissioned from 1496 to 1505 to Mantegna ( Parnassus and Triumph of the Virtues ), Lorenzo Costa

352-756: The Diet of Mantua in 1459. The monumental Scalone delle Duchesse ("Duchesses' Staircase"), built in the 17th century and renovated in 1779 by Paolo Pozzo, leads to the Room of the Morone, named after the 1494 canvas of the Veronese painter Domenico Morone , portraying the Expulsion of the Bonacolsi in 1328 . In the noble floor of the Captain's Palace is the First Room of Guastalla, with a fresco frieze with portraits of

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384-698: The Elder ( Isabella d'Este in the Realm of Harmony and the Realm of Komos ) and Perugino ( Combat of Love and Chastity ), as well as new ones by Correggio ( Allegory of Vice and Allegory of Virtue ). Another hall in the same wing is the Camera Granda or Scalcheria , frescoed in 1522 by the Mantuan artist Lorenzo Leonbruno . The apartment included further halls in the so-called "Wing of Santa Croce", from

416-474: The Gonzaga family, including those of Guglielmo, were discovered in the church. The interior contains two lateral altars, surmounted by large canvas altarpieces by Lorenzo Costa the younger , depicting The Baptism of Emperor Costantine and the Martyrdom of Sant’Adrian . The presbytery has a painting of Martyrdom of St Barbara (1564), by Domenico Brusasorci ; and an Annunciation by Fermo Ghisoni beside

448-418: The Gonzaga family, which once extended to the successive room, the "Room of Pisanello ", from the artist who, from 1433, painted a series of frescoes depicting a Tournament and other scenes, which were left unfinished. His commissioner, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga , is portrayed in the paintings. The frescoes were rediscovered and restored in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1519, Isabella d'Este moved her residence from

480-799: The Palatine church of St. Barbara and a period in the Ducal Palace's stores, the Flemish tapestries were restored in 1799 and placed in the current location. A further restoration was carried on during the Napoleonic Wars in the Sala dello Zodiaco ("Hall of the Zodiac"), also known as " Napoleon I 's Hall", after the French emperor slept there. The Castle of St. George ( Castello di San Giorgio )

512-756: The Refectory, facing the Hanging Garden, and the Sala dello Specchio ("Hall of the Mirror"), used for music. During the Habsburg rule in Mantua, the Refectory was refurbished, with the creation of the Sala dei Fiumi ("Hall of the Rivers") with paintings on the walls on which the rivers in the Mantuan territory are portrayed as giants. At the same time was created the Appartamento degli Arazzi ("Apartment of

544-773: The Tapestries"), comprising four halls. Three of the latter have tapestries, executed in Flanders from the Raphael Cartoons (now Victoria & Albert Museum ) by Raphael , designed for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace . They were bought at Brussels by Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga in the early 16th century to decorate what at the time was called the Green Apartment. After decorating

576-878: The capital of their Duchy . The buildings are connected by corridors and galleries and are enriched by inner courts and wide gardens. The complex includes some 500 rooms and occupies an area of c. 34,000 m , which make it the sixth largest palace in Europe after the palaces of the Vatican , the Louvre Palace , the Palace of Versailles , the Royal Palace of Caserta and the Castle of Fontainebleau . It has more than 500 rooms and contains seven gardens and eight courtyards . Although most famous for Mantegna 's frescos in

608-571: The celebrated court dwarves of Mantua. In 1979, however, Italian art historian Renato Berzaghi convincingly demonstrated that these tiny rooms are instead an exact reproduction of an ancient Roman original: the Scala Santa ("Holy Stairway") of St. John Lateran in Rome , and were intended for devotional purposes. The main feature of the Corte Nuova ("New Court") is the Sala di Manto , once

640-675: The city of Mantua was sieged and sacked in 1630. After this period, the duchy rapidly descended into a perpetual crisis, and the Gonzaga family was forced to sell all their goods. In the 18th century, Mantua became part of the Austrian empire. The villa played a significant role in history during the French conquest of Mantua in 1796. The palace was used as a defensive stronghold by the Austrians, who were in control of Mantua at that time. The French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte laid siege to

672-435: The city, and a decisive battle called Battaglia della Favorita (Favorita's battle) took place around the palace. The French emerged victorious, and this battle marked the beginning of the palace's decline. Following the conquest of the city by the French, the palace was sold, then utilised for many purposes. It was set on fire during World War I and partially demolished. The remains of the villa has partially been restored and

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704-535: The entrance to the "Apartment of Troy", which takes its name from the frescoes (1538–1539) by collaborators of Giulio Romano , commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga to restore several rooms in the Palace. The current appearance of the Sala del Manto dates to the intervention of Guglielmo X, who ordered the creation of the Appartamento Grande di Castello ("Large Apartment of the Castle"). The frescoes in

736-511: The hall depict the story of Troy , preceded by the arrival in Italy of Manto , a legendary daughter of Tiresias . The church of Santa Barbara , which had the role of Palace chapel ("Basilica Palatina") for the Gonzagas, was built in 1562-1572 by Giovanni Battista Bertani , commissioned by Duke Guglielmo. As a basilica , it was allowed religious ceremonies with some degree of independence in

768-646: The huge Sala degli Arcieri ("Room of the Archers"), the site of Duke Vincenzo's original apartment. Here can be found a celebrated altarpiece by Peter Paul Rubens (1605), formerly part of a triptych for the church of Santissima Trinità in Mantua, portraying the Gonzaga Family in Adoration of the Holy Trinity , as well as other paintings from now-suppressed churches and monasteries. This room opens to

800-435: The liturgy used. The church has a central plan, with a square tiburium in the middle, followed by a raised semicircular presbytery covered by another tiburium, similar to the other one, and ending into a scenographic apse decorated with coffers . Under the presbytery is the crypt with an oval memorial. The bell tower has a square plan, and is topped by a small temple. Recently the remains of four dukes and other members of

832-531: The name of a church of the time of Matilda of Canossa , over whose remains were built rooms such as the Sala delle Imprese Isabelliane ("Wing of Isabella's Deeds"), the Sala Imperiale ("Imperial Hall"), Sala delle Calendule ("Hall of the Calendulae"), Sala delle Targhe and Sala delle Imprese . Later Guglielmo X Gonzaga , in the 16th century, transformed the rooms of the Corte Vecchia creating

864-499: The organ. Ghisoni also painted around 1566, the St Barbara and San Peter on the other side. In 1565 the church was provided with an organ in 1565 by Graziadio Antegnati, a member of a distinguished family of organ builders. The organ was restored in 1995. 45°9′37″N 10°47′56″E  /  45.16028°N 10.79889°E  / 45.16028; 10.79889 Domenico Morone Domenico Morone ( c. 1442 – 1518)

896-408: The works. The painter's decoration creates an illusionistic space, as if the chamber was a loggia with three openings facing country landscapes among arcades and curtains. The painted scenes portrays members of the Gonzaga family. The Domus Nova (Latin: "New House") was originally designed by Luca Fancelli in 1480–84. During the reign of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga (1562–1612) the edifice

928-407: Was an Italian painter from Verona , painting in an early Renaissance style. Much of his work has not survived, notably his fresco cycles. He was considered by Vasari to be second only to Liberale da Verona among artists in his town. His son Francesco Morone was also a prominent Veronese painter. His pupils included Michele da Verona and Girolamo dai Libri . Domenico Morone is known from

960-409: Was built from 1395 and finished in 1406 under commission by Francesco I Gonzaga , designed by Bartolino da Novara , one of the most renowned military architects of the time. It has a square plan with four corner towers, surrounded by a ditch with three entrances, each one with a drawbridge . In 1459 architect Luca Fancelli , commissioned by marquis Ludovico III Gonzaga , who assigned several rooms of

992-580: Was renovated, creating the current Appartamento Ducale ("Ducal Apartment") designed in 1595 by Cremonese artist and architect Antonio Maria Viani . The Galleria Nuova ("New Corridor") was constructed in 1778 by Giuseppe Piermarini to connect the Guastalla apartment to the Ducal apartment. It houses several altarpieces from the early 16th century to the late 18th century by Francesco Borgani , Carlo Bononi , Spagnoletto and others. The gallery leads to

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1024-517: Was the last great Gonzaga residence, and was a grand baroque structure. Duke Ferdinand Gonzaga insatiable collected work of arts, which he brought together in the villa. However, the collecting and the building overburdened the ducal treasury such that in 1627, a year after the duke passed away, the ducal collection was sold to Charles I of England. During the War of the Mantuan Succession ,

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