Mantova (Mantua)!

It's taken me a while to update the blog; normal life just has a way of interfering!

So, Mantua was probably my favorite of the three cities we visited. Like the others, it was quite flat and very walkable (and bikable...lots of bikes!). We started off by visiting the Palazzo del Tè, the Tea Palace, which is a Unesco World Heritage site. It was originally built as a little get-away for the marquis and his mistress (he was not particularly charmed with his arranged marriage), and the workmen misunderstood the word "little." Built about 80 years before Versailles, Federico Gonzaga displayed an intimate understanding of how one can spend money. A single-story villa, each room is more impressive than the one before!

Ceiling panel

The ceilings were incredible

This room had life-sized horses frescoed all around...and entire barn full!

The ceiling, again...just incredible

Floors weren't bad, either, but date a bit later

Rather debauched feast

The trompe l'oeil perspective is so effective as to be unsettling

The Hall of the Giants

 The Hall of the Giants deserves special mention. Cavernous and creepy, it didn't take much imagination to perceive how creepy this would have been without natural light. Lit only by a fireplace (no longer extant, unfortunately) that supposedly was created to look like a natural cave...all rough rocks...this room with its all-over frescoes depicting the fall of the Titans is imposing, startling, and very Halloween-y. The faces of the giants are several feet (maybe even a yard) top to bottom, and the ceiling trompe l'oeil cupola just adds to the overall effect. Not, in truth, a room in which I would spend a lot of time were it my house, but great for ghost stories!

"Cupola", Sala dei Giganti

Moving to lighter topics, we have a dressing room ceiling...

 After lunch, it was time to move on to the Palazzo Ducale and the famous Camera degli Sposi. Studied in every art history class all over the world, it was time for me to see it in person. The importance of the room is in its use of perspective. For the first ti
me, we see little angels from above; from our perspective, we can see their little feet!

I took a video of the Camera degli Sposi to show you the full effect. Half of the walls are frescoed with the "stamped leather" look. The other two show scenes from the Duke's life (including one wall depicting his finding out that a relative is seriously ill...peculiar topic, I thought). Billed as "the most beautiful room in the world," I would call it an overstatement, personally. It was pretty. And absolutely the work is groundbreaking and I "get" that the technique was a complete departure from what had been done before. But for my taste, I've been in prettier rooms. Nonetheless, it was great to see in person. You get a whole new understanding of the significance of the works. For instance, I had seen the Sala dei Cavalli (the room of the horses in the Palazzo del Tè) in class, but had not really registered how huge and detailed they are.

Other photos in Mantova:

Lunar clock

In this nifty optical illusion, the arm appears to change position depending where you stand!

A high-profile thief got to enjoy some time in this cage. The tower is 115 m high, I think.

This ceiling made me think of those trendy words that came in in the 90s.

A hodgepodge of styles

You can see the above church in the center-left of the painting.
The piazza looks much the same today, minus the fighting dating to the 1600s.

An important merchant's house, this was built in the Venetian style

 I had the joy of being inside the round church, whose name I have forgotten...dates to the 1100s, and was literally hidden in the Jewish quarter for several hundred years and only "recently" rediscovered (after World War II, I think). Very odd.

Love,

Alexandra