Mantegna, Andrea

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Italian painter and engraver. He painted religious and mythological subjects, his works noted for their all'antica style taking elements from Roman antique architecture and sculpture, and for their innovative use of perspective.

Mantegna was born in Vicenza. He was brought up and trained by Francesco Squarcione at Padua, his master entering him in the guild of painters before he was eleven. Like Squarcione, and indeed most north Italian artists, he was influenced by the scuptures of Donatello at Padua, and he was later impressed by the paintings of the Florentines, Uccello and Filippo Lippi. As well as Florentine styles, Mantegna was influenced by Venetian fashion, in particular the style of Jacopo Bellini, whose daughter Lodovisia he married 1453.

Becoming the Gonzaga family's court painter in 1460, he painted the frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi (Bridal Chamber) in the Castello, which portrayed the Gonzaga family on the walls, and the first Renaissance illusionistic ceiling painting above. His Vatican frescoes of 1488 were later destroyed, but the series of tempera paintings of the Triumph of Caesar (1490) for the Gonzagas survives at Hampton Court, London.

Blue is taken from the Swedish arms. Red and white recall the Danish flag, known as the Dannebrog. Effective date: 15 December 1899. >>