Palazzo Te, Mantua, Italy

The Palazzo Te is a historic and monumental building in Mantua. a fine example of the mannerist style of architecture, Built between 1524 and 1534 on commission by Federico II Gonzaga, it is the most famous work of the Italian architect Giulio Romano. The complex is now home to the civic museum and, since 1990, the International Center for Art and Culture of Palazzo Te which organizes exhibitions of ancient and modern art and architecture.

History
Palazzo del Te was constructed 1524–34 for Federico II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua as a palace of leisure. The site chosen was that of the family’s stables at Isola Del Te, on the edge of the marshes just outside Mantua’s city walls. The name comes from tejeto, the grove that once grew on what was then an islet in the marshlands around the core of the city.

Giulio Romano, a pupil of Raphael, was commissioned to design the building. The shell of the palazzo, erected within eighteen months, is basically a square house containing a cloistered courtyard. A formal garden complemented the house, enclosed by colonnaded outbuildings ending in a semicircular colonnade known as the ‘Esedra’.

Once the shell of the building was completed, for ten years a team of plasterers, carvers and fresco painters laboured, until barely a surface in any of the loggias or salons remained undecorated. Under Romano’s direction, local decorative painters such as Benedetto Pagni and Rinaldo Mantovano worked extensively on the frescos.

In July 1630, during the War of the Mantuan Succession (1628–31), Mantua and the palace were sacked over three days by an Imperial army of 36,000 Landsknecht mercenaries. The remaining populace fell victim to one of the worst plagues in history that the invaders had brought with them. The Palazzo was looted from top to bottom and remained an empty shell: nymphs, god, goddesses and giants remain on the walls of the empty echoing rooms.

Symbology
The symbols and coats of arms fill the walls of the palace and its voluptuous owner with more or less hidden and often political meanings. The Mount Olympus, for example, surrounded by a labyrinth and that rises from the waters is a symbol that often can be found, it is taken up in constituent architectural elements of the building as the two large ponds that through a bridge leading to the garden, or as the maze boxwood (now disappeared) of the garden itself.

Another interesting symbol is the salamander, which Federico elects as personal, together with which the motto is often used: quod huic deest me torquet (what is missing from him torments me); in fact the green lizard was considered the only animal insensitive to the stimuli of love, and was used as a conceptual contrast to the duke and his sensual and gallant nature, which instead was tormented by the vices of love.

The architectural structure
The symbols and coats of arms fill the walls of the palace and its voluptuous owner with more or less hidden and often political meanings. The Mount Olympus, for example, surrounded by a labyrinth and that rises from the waters is a symbol that often can be found, it is taken up in constituent architectural elements of the building as the two large ponds that through a bridge leading to the garden, or as the maze boxwood (now disappeared) of the garden itself.

Another interesting symbol is the salamander, which Federico elects as personal, together with which the motto is often used: quod huic deest me torquet (what is missing from him torments me); in fact the green lizard was considered the only animal insensitive to the stimuli of love, and was used as a conceptual contrast to the duke and his sensual and gallant nature, which instead was tormented by the vices of love.

The architectural structure
The building is a square building with a large square courtyard in the center, once also decorated with a labyrinth, with four entrances on all four sides (Giulio Romano is inspired by the Vitruvian description of the dwelling house: the domus Roman with four entrances, each on one of the four sides).

The building has unusual proportions: it looks like a large, low block, with a single floor, whose height is about a quarter of the width.

The complex is symmetrical along a longitudinal axis.

On the main side of the axis (north-west) the entrance opening is a square vestibule, with four columns that divide it into three naves. The vault of the central nave is a barrel vault and the two side ones show a flat ceiling (in the manner of the atrium described by Vitruvius and which was so successful in Italian palaces of the sixteenth century), thus assuming an extruded Serlian conformation.

The main entrance (south-east) towards the city and the garden is a loggia, the so-called Loggia Grande, on the outside composed of three large arches on twin columns that compose a succession of serliane. that are reflected in the small ponds in front. The balcony continues to the second register, on the upper part of the facade was originally a loggia; this side of the building was in fact extensively remodeled at the end of the 1700s, when the triangular pediment was also added that surmounted the large central serliane.

The external facades are on two levels (registers), joined by Doric smooth pilasters of giant order. The intercolumns vary according to a complex rhythm. All the external surface is treated with ashlar (including the window frames and doors) more marked on the first register:

– The first rusticated register has rectangular windows framed by protruding ashlars (rustic studs).

– The second register has a smoother and more regular ashlar, with square windows without frames

The inner courtyard also follows a Doric order, but here on columns (semi-columns) of marble left almost crude surmounted by a mighty Doric entablature.

Here the parietal surface is treated with a rustic ashlar not too marked, regular and homogeneous without significant differences between the first and second register.

G. Romano inspired by a classical architectural language, reinterprets it by creating a work with a rich collection of stylistic inventions, archaeological reminiscences, natural and decorative cues, such as:

– Doric giant columns incorporated in wall surfaces to treat stone blocks with a rustic surface

– some ashlar ashlars falling into the frieze of the entablature that surrounds and crowns the square courtyard. It can be seen in the facades on the longitudinal axis (ie north-west and south-east), at the center of each intercolumn, a triglyph that seems to slide downwards, like a stone arch; on these two sides even the intercolumns, like the exterior, are not all the same. These details displace the observer and give a feeling of unfinished to the whole.

It seems that the palace was originally painted also outdoors, but the colors have disappeared while the interior frescoes painted by Giulio Romano himself and by many collaborators remain. In addition to the frescoes, the walls were enriched with curtains and leather applications, gold and silver, the doors of inlaid woods and bronzes and the fireplaces made of noble marbles.

The earthquakes of Emilia in 2012 caused damage to some rooms of the Gonzaga palace.

The halls of the palace
Hall of the Giants: the fresco of the Fall of the Giants was painted between 1532 and 1535, covering the room from the walls to the ceiling with the illusionistic representation of the battle between the Giants trying to climb to the Olympus and Zeus

Hall of horses: with the life-size portraits of the Gonzaga’s six favorite steeds was the ballroom. The horses stand out in all the beauty of their forms on a natural landscape that opens behind some Corinthian columns painted and that alternate the thoroughbred with figures of mythological divinities in false niches. The wooden coffered ceiling and gilded rosettes house Mount Olympus and the lizard, the symbols of the duke and his scheme is taken from the floor giving symmetry to the environment (the floor is not the original of the time).

Sala di Amore e Psiche: it is the dining room of the duke. Entirely frescoed, each wall depicts the mythological history of Psyche as lustful, it is the symbol of the duke’s love for Isabella Boschetti. The literary source is the metamorphosis of Apuleius. To the other two walls, without relations with the story, there are mythological episodes with Mars and Venus and, above the windows and the chimney, various divine loves.

Sala delle Aquile: Federico’s bedroom adorned in the center of the vault with the fresco of the fall of Fetonte from the chariot of the sun, it is finished by dark stuccos of eagles with spread wings in the lunettes at the corners of the room and frescoes of pagan fables.
Hall of the Winds or of the Zodiac

Business Hall

Hall of Ovid and Metamorphoses

Hall of the Sun and the Moon: it takes its name from the central fresco of the vault depicting the chariots of the Sun and the Moon. Mentioned as a “drawing room” in documents, the room had the function of introducing guests to the more private rooms of the companies and Ovid. At the top of the wide vault in disgust a prospective smash opens up depicting the allegory of the chariot of the setting sun and that of the Moon that rises, a metaphor for the incessant passing of time. A long tradition has it that the fresco was painted by Giulio Romano’s most brilliant pupil: the Bolognese Francesco Primaticcio. Despite the lack of documentary certainty, the quality of the work does not contradict this opinion. The sails of the vault are decorated with lacunars (192 between lozenges and triangles at the edges of the composition) with stucco reliefs, on a blue background, depicting men, animals, emblems and the exploits of Ramarro and Mount Olympus, favored by Frederick II. The depictions are taken from the classical repertoire: coins and gems, of which Giulio Romano was a collector. The ceiling and the underlying cornice, similar to the other decorations of this wing of the building, can be placed at the years 1527-28.

Hall of the Emperors:
The room of the bas-reliefs and the Sala dei Cesari: the Emperor Charles V, from whom Frederick obtained the title of duke in 1530, are clearly homely.

Loggia of honor or of David: is the loggia overlooking the fishmongers, parallel to the “Grande” which marks the entrance of the building and shows the enchanting view of the garden that is closed to the north by the exedra. The vault is divided into large squares with frames of marsh reeds in which the biblical story of David is represented, scenes taken between 1531 and 1534. The decoration of the lodge lasted until the nineteenth century. The 14 niches were embellished with as many stone statues depicting the personifications of the Virtues taken from the Iconology of Cesare Ripa, a work several times published, from 1593 to 1630. It was in 1653 that Duke Carlo II Gonzaga Neversto commission the statues for the most part, nine, made by the Bolognese sculptor Gabriele Brunelli. The last five statues were made in 1805. Also the workshop of Brunelli executed bas-reliefs together with Francesco Agnesini.

All this part of the villa praises, through the paintings and symbols of the Roman art and paganism of the myths of the Olympus, the figure of the emperor Charles V, but here is revealed one of the hidden “signals” of political mold, in all the events represent the attention placed on the strength and importance of the great Jupiter seems to blur its prestige.

The secret corner
The cave apartment was built around 1530 in the east corner of the garden near the exedra that concludes the space of the villa. The apartment consists of a few rooms of much smaller size than those of the body of the building; a loggia that opens into a small garden shows what remains of an environment then decorated and frescoed.

From the garden you enter the Grotta, a small room used as a bathroom, with a very unusual realization. The opening is realized as if to give the idea of a natural environment, of a cave, there are no marble and refined materials of the rest of the building, the interiors were covered with shells (now disappeared) and water games they had to cheer the visitor and amaze him at the same time.

Fruit Trees of Palazzo Te
The fruit bowls are located on the southern side of the garden of Palazzo Te; rectangular in plan, they consist of a single environment divided into three naves. The cover is supported by ten pairs of pillars.
The construction work began in 1651 based on a design by the architect Nicolò Sebregondi and in 1655 the building began to house plants and citrus fruit placed in terracotta pots for the winter shelter. But already from the following century the fruit bowls and adjacent stables were used as a military warehouse. Numerous and improper uses followed one another until 1989 when, after an appropriate restoration, it became the exhibition venue for the exhibitions realized by thePalazzo Te International Center of Art and Culture.

Civic Museum
The Spanish, French and Austrian occupations and the various wars meant that over the years the palace was used as a barracks and the gardens as camps for the troops, depleting the halls and destroying some sculptures (they remain visible on the walls of the room of the Giants the graffiti and the engravings with names and dates of a glorious past for the monument). The ownership of the villa by the Gonzaga family passed, except for the brief period of Napoleonic domination, to the Austrian government until 1866 when it was acquired by the Italian State. In 1876the building becomes property of the Municipality of Mantua. After several restorations, the palace today returns, with its rooms and gardens, an enchanting dip in the creativity of Giulio Romano and in the importance of the Gonzaga court. Thanks to the reorganization of the orangerie, where oranges and lemons were cultivated, a vast room was created for temporary exhibitions. But a further aim of the city’s institutions’ commitment was to obtain a museum in Palazzo Te to house at least a part of the civic collections. The permanent exhibition space was created in the rooms on the upper floor. There are four collections on display:

Gonzaga section
The section consists of materials related mainly to the history of Mantua from the Gonzaga age (1328 – 1707): a Numismatic Collection consisting of 595 coins produced by the Mint of Mantua, a collection of cones and punches, the ancient series of State weights and measures of Mantua and a collection of 62 medals of the Gonzagas and illustrious Mantuan figures.

Donation “Arnoldo Mondadori”
The section consists of nineteen paintings by Federico Zandomeneghi (1841 – 1917) and thirteen by Armando Spadini (1883 – 1925), collected by Arnoldo Mondadori and donated in 1974 by the heirs of the Mantuan publisher. Nine paintings from the collection are lent for the great exhibition The Impressionism by Zandomeneghi, conceived after the centenary of the Venetian painter’s death. The nine works exhibited at the Palazzo Zabarella in Padua are: La cuisinière (La cuoca), 1881, oil on canvas; Corsage bleu(The blue jacket), 1884, pastel on paper glued on cardboard; Femme au bar (Al caffè), 1884, oil on canvas; Femme qui s’étire (Awakening), 1895, pastel on paper; The Attentive (Attesa), 1896-1898, pastel on paper applied on cardboard; Rêverie (Reverie), 1893 – 1900, oil on canvas; Girl with yellow flowers, 1900 – 1905, pastel on paper glued on cardboard; La fête (Girl with a bouquet of flowers), 1894, oil on canvas; Still life: pommes (Still life with apples), 1917, oil on canvas.

Egyptian Collection “Giuseppe Acerbi”
Giuseppe Acerbi (1773 – 1846), Consul General of Austria in Egypt, participated in 1829 in some phases of the famous archaeological expedition led by Jean François Champollion. It constituted an important collection of archaeological materials, 500 pieces that in 1840 gave to the city of Mantua. Now his collection is entirely exhibited in Palazzo Te.

Mesopotamian Collection “Ugo Sissa”
The collection consisting of Ugo Sissa, architect and painter from Mantua (1913 – 1980), chief architect in Baghdad between 1953 and 1958, consists of about 250 pieces of Mesopotamian art dating from the end of the 6th millennium BC and the end of the 1st millennium AD.