MANTEGNA, Andrea
(b. 1431, Isola di Carturo, d. 1506, Mantova)

Baptism of Christ

c. 1505
Tempera on canvas, 230 x 176 cm
Cappella di Giovanni Battista, Sant'Andrea, Mantua

In 1504, Mantegna bought the right to the first chapel on the left in the church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua for setting up his own funerary chapel. With his son Francesco, who was also a painter, he decorated the chapel's vault with a fictive pergola of garlands that frame the Mantegna family coat-of-arms. He also painted an altarpiece of the Baptism of Christ for his chapel, which today is in a ruined condition.

The painting is still in the chapel. It is to a great extent the work of Mantegna's workshop and of his son Francesco.