Following his successes in Padua and Verona, Mantegna was appointed court artist by Ludovico Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua, a small independent state located in North Italy. Mantegna's position included the planning of festivals, the designing of costumes, and the preparation of models for temporary sculpture, but primarily he was occupied with painting. Mantegna's most successful enterprise in Mantua, where he maintained his residence for half a century, was the Camera degli Sposi (room of the bride and groom), otherwise known as the camera picta (the painted room) in the north tower of the Castel San Giorgio. The walls contain contemporary representations of the Gonzaga family. The room with a square plan (8,1 x 8,1 m) occupied the artist from 1465 until 1474, a long time for a fresco decoration. Work proceeded slowly because of known interruptions and the program's complexity, as well as the degree of detail required.

The overall design and various details of the ceiling permit an assessment of Mantegna's precocity in the creation of the room's decoration, which opened the way for the illusionistic painting of Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, and beyond to later sixteenth-century quadratura (perspective architectural wall and ceiling painting). Only two of the walls have figurative narrations: the north wall with a scene that is usually called the Court and the west wall, divided into three scenes, Servants with Horse and Dogs, the Inscription with Putti, and the Meeting. The remaining two walls are painted with imitation leather draperies that encroach upon the other sides as well to create the fiction that there were curtains before all four walls and on two sides they had been opened up to reveal the events depicted.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 4 minutes): Giuseppe Aldrovandini: Sonata in D Major for two trumpets, strings and basso continuo

Preview	Picture Data	File Info	Comment
	View of the west and north walls 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1156*802 True Color 201 Kb
	View of the west and north walls 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1356*900 True Color 235 Kb
	View of the south and east walls 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1300*856 True Color 192 Kb
	View of the west and north walls and the ceiling 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	924*1200 True Color 175 Kb
	View of the north wall 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1169 True Color 184 Kb
	View of the west wall 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1190 True Color 206 Kb
	The north wall: The Court of Gonzaga 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1022*1200 True Color 226 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster, 805 x 807 cm Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1037*800 True Color 176 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1426*1000 True Color 279 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1197 True Color 222 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1176 True Color 209 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1367 True Color 227 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1187 True Color 194 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	807*1400 True Color 202 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	702*1200 True Color 134 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	900*1085 True Color 173 Kb
	The Court of Gonzaga (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1050*727 True Color 176 Kb
	The west wall: The Meeting 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1271*900 True Color 185 Kb
	The west wall: The Meeting 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1066*1200 True Color 236 Kb
	The Meeting 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	750*1174 True Color 192 Kb
	The Meeting 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	931*1200 True Color 199 Kb
	The Meeting 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	825*1400 True Color 204 Kb
	The Meeting (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1221 True Color 200 Kb
	The Meeting (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1140 True Color 201 Kb
	The Meeting (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	940*1200 True Color 187 Kb
	The Meeting (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	903*1200 True Color 201 Kb
	The Meeting (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1400*800 True Color 189 Kb
	Inscription with Putti 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	928*1200 True Color 184 Kb
	Inscription with Putti 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1028*850 True Color 190 Kb
	Inscription with Putti 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1164*1100 True Color 221 Kb
	Grotesque Self-Portrait 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	422*1500 True Color 133 Kb
	Grotesque Self-Portrait 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	761*1200 True Color 191 Kb
	Grotesque Self-Portrait 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	926*1100 True Color 216 Kb
	Suite of Cardinal Francesco 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	750*1400 True Color 174 Kb
	Suite of Cardinal Francesco (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	900*1154 True Color 187 Kb
	Suite of Cardinal Francesco (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1385 True Color 207 Kb
	Suite of Cardinal Francesco (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1400*922 True Color 176 Kb
	Ceiling decoration 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	917*1100 True Color 239 Kb
	Ceiling (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	900*1073 True Color 236 Kb
	Ceiling Oculus 1465-74 Fresco, diameter: 270 cm Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1202 True Color 248 Kb
	Ceiling Oculus 1465-74 Fresco, diameter: 270 cm Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	900*997 True Color 197 Kb
	Ceiling Oculus 1465-74 Fresco, diameter: 270 cm Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1200*1024 True Color 214 Kb
	Ceiling Oculus (detail) 1465-74 Fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1200*1005 True Color 230 Kb
	Ceiling Oculus (detail) 1465-74 Fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1000*1168 True Color 177 Kb
	Ceiling Oculus (detail) 1465-74 Fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	900*1043 True Color 159 Kb
	Ceiling (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	922*1100 True Color 226 Kb
	Ceiling (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	874*1100 True Color 247 Kb
	Ceiling decoration (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	700*989 True Color 121 Kb
	Ceiling decoration (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	791*1100 True Color 198 Kb
	Ceiling decoration (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1028*900 True Color 153 Kb
	Ceiling decoration (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1107*900 True Color 174 Kb
	Ceiling decoration (detail) 1465-74 Walnut oil on plaster and fresco Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua	1101*900 True Color 167 Kb