Andrea Mantegna

Mantegna; humanist, geometrist, archaeologist, of great scholastic and imaginative intelligence, dominated the whole of northern Italy by virtue of his imperious personality. Aiming at optical illusion, he mastered perspective. He trained in painting at the Padua School where Donatello and Paolo Uccello had previously attended. Even at a young age commissions for Andrea’s work flooded in, for example the frescos of the Ovetari Chapel of Padua. In a short space of time Mantegna found his niche as a modernist due to his highly original ideas and the use of perspective in his works. His marriage with Nicolosia Bellini, the sister of Giovanni, paved the way for his entree into Venice. Mantegna reached an artistic maturity with his Pala San Zeno. He remained in Mantova and became the artist for one of the most prestigious courts in Italy – the Court of Gonzaga. Classical art was born. Despite his links with Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, Mantegna refused to adopt their innovative use of colour or leave behind his own technique of engraving.

If the fifteenth century in Italy has been seen as the moment when the constellation of disciplines known as "the humanities" begins to take shape, it was also a time when a "crisis in the humanities" - their value, their limits, who and what they included or excluded - was also manifest. A largely nineteenth century construction of "Renaissance humanism" has indelibly cast humanist pursuits in terms of writing, with arts of making or techne sometimes idealized as a second order manifestation of humanist ideas. This book re-examines the career of one socially and intellectually ambitious artist, Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) and his intellectual network, to re-open questions of the locations of humanism, the notion of "humanist art," or painting as a form of discourse that far from being ancillary to poetry, history, or rhetoric, served as a model for all three. It will be shown that the place of normativity or typicality that Andrea Mantegna occupies in the History of Art - "Early Renaissance artist," "artist as antiquarian," "Albertian perspectivist," has kept from view the more radical potential of his work for a re-description of early Renaissance painting. The major works examined here - the Ovetari Chapel, the Camera Picta, the altarpieces for Padua and Verona, the Triumphs of Caesar, adopt strikingly original means to address their beholder, and to control and even produce their spatial and ideological milieu, challenging conventional notions of "the gaze" and how it operates in early Renaissance art. Furthermore, Mantegna's representations entail a striking integration of writing and painting as modes of transmission: Mantegna and his audience were highly attentive to the materiality of text, image, and object in the transmission of knowledge. Several of Mantegna works in which architecture or sculpture are depicted (such as The Introduction of the Cult of Cybele to Rome) seem preoccupied by the stability of meaning in the artistic object in circumstances of displacement or commodification. The Triumphs - a monumental series of canvases programmatically devoted to the "bringing back" of the riches of a lost world - offer a programmatic pictorial characterization of what we now call "Renaissance art," engaging its stylistic desiderata, its technical accomplishments - and, in ways that exceed any theory committed to writing - its ideological implicatedness.

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Andrea Mantegna: Making Art (History) presents the art of Mantegna as challenging the parameters of the history of art in the demands it makes upon historical interpretation, and explores the artist’s potentially transformative impact on the study of the early Renaissance. Features an array of new methodologies for the study of Mantegna and early Renaissance art Critically addresses the question of iconography and “literary” art, as well as the politics of the monographic exhibition Includes translations of two seminal accounts of the artist by Roberto Longhi and Daniel Arasse, key texts not previously available in English Explores the Mantegna’s potentially transformative impact on the study of the early Renaissance

Few artists have managed to imprint their personality so indelibly on posterity as Andrea Mantegna (c. 1430-1506). Before he reached the age of twenty, Mantegna was already being praised for his "alto ingegno" (exalted genius), and he became the court artist for the Gonzaga family in Mantua before he was thirty. Yet, this book argues, Mantegna was not simply a great painter. Together with Donatello, he was the defining genius of the 15th century: the measure of what an artist could be. His highly original and deeply personal vision, the descriptive richness of his pictures, and his biting, hypercritical but always exalted mind gave Mantegna's art an extraordinary edge and earned him a preeminent place in the Renaissance.

Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), one of the foremost north Italian painters of the 15th century. A master of perspective and foreshortening, he made important contributions to the compositional techniques of Renaissance painting. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. His flinty, metallic landscapes and somewhat stony figures give evidence of a fundamentally sculptural approach to painting. He also led a workshop that was the leading producer of prints in Venice before 1500.

Andrea Mantegna made important contributions to the compositional techniques of Renaissance drawing somewhat rocky figures give evidence of a fundamentally sculptural approach to drawing. His human forms were distinguished for their solidity, expressiveness, and anatomical correctness. Mantegna developed a passionate interest in classical antiquity. The influence of both ancient Roman sculpture and the contemporary sculptor Donatello are clearly evident in Mantegna's rendering of the human figure.

The most important northern Italian artist of the early Renaissance, Andrea Mantegna was a student of Roman archaeology and the son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. A pioneering master of perspective, Mantegna used pictorial devices such as extreme foreshortening, lowering the horizon to create greater monumentality and rendering his figures as more rounded and modelled, with Donatellian naturalism. His masterpieces are renowned for their minute attention to detail, rendering rocky and metallic landscapes with a fundamentally sculptural approach to painting. His paintings were highly sought after by Europe’s royal houses, while Dürer, Rubens and Rembrandt are just a few of the artists that copied and learnt from his works. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing readers to explore the works of great artists in comprehensive detail. This volume presents Mantegna’s complete paintings in beautiful detail, with concise introductions, hundreds of high quality images and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * The complete paintings of Andrea Mantegna – over 200 images, fully indexed and arranged in chronological and alphabetical order * Includes reproductions of rare works * Features a special ‘Highlights’ section, with concise introductions to the masterpieces, giving valuable contextual information * Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore Mantegna’s celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional art books * Hundreds of images in colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the paintings * Easily locate the artworks you wish to view * Includes a selection of Mantegna's drawings and sculptures – explore the artist’s varied works * Features three bonus biographies, including Giorgio Vasari’s seminal life of the artist – discover Mantegna's world Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting e-Art books CONTENTS: The Highlights Scenes from the Life of Saint James Adoration of the Shepherds Saint Luke Altarpiece San Zeno Altarpiece Agony in the Garden Presentation at the Temple Adoration of the Magi Saint Sebastian Portrait of Carlo de’ Medici Camera degli Sposi Lamentation of Christ Pietà Madonna of the Quarry The Triumphs of Caesar Parnassus The Triumph of the Virtues Samson and Delilah The Paintings The Complete Paintings Alphabetical List of Paintings The Drawings and Sculptures List of Other Artworks The Biographies Andrea Mantegna by Giorgio Vasari Andrea Mantegna by N. D’Anvers Andrea Mantegna by William Michael Rossetti Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to buy the whole Art series as a Super Set