The Walls
The "Court Scene" on the west wall shows Ludovico Gonzaga, dressed informally, with his wife Barbara of Brandenburg. They are seated with their relatives, while a group of courtiers fill the rest of the wall. The figures are interacting in an illusionistically expanded space.
On the north wall is the "Meeting scene". This fresco shows Ludovico in official robes in an ideal meeting with his son, Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III and Christian I of Denmark.
The commission is far from being explained by scholars. The traditional interpretation sees the frescos as linked to the election as Cardinal of Ludovico’s son Francesco Gonzaga, which took place on January 1, 1462: the Court scene should then represent the Marquis receiving the news, and the Meeting Scene should see father and son reunited in the happy event.
The mature and strongly-built figure of Francesco though, doesn’t seem to match with his age in 1461, which was only 17 (an early portrait held today in Naples confirms this). For this reason, these frescos could refer to a later visit of Cardinal Francesco to Mantua, perhaps on August 1472 when he was given the title of St. Andrew.
Read more about this topic: Camera Degli Sposi
Famous quotes containing the word walls:
“Do you know what Agelisas said, when he was asked why the great city of Lacedomonie was not girded with walls? Because, pointing out the inhabitants and citizens of the city, so expert in military discipline and so strong and well armed: “Here,” he said, “are the walls of the city,” meaning that there is no wall but of bones, and that towns and cities can have no more secure nor stronger wall than the virtue of their citizens and inhabitants.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“Thou stately stream that with the swelling tide
‘Gainst London walls incessantly dost beat,
Thou Thames, I say, where barge and boat doth ride,
And snow-white swans do fish for needful meat:”
—George Turberville (1821–1873)