24 Facts About Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna led a workshop that was the leading producer of prints in Venice before 1500.

Andrea Mantegna was born in Isola di Carturo, Venetian Republic close to Padua, second son of a carpenter, Biagio.

At the time, Andrea Mantegna was said to be a favorite pupil of Squarcione, who taught him Latin and instructed him to study fragments of Roman sculpture.

However, at the age of 17, Andrea Mantegna left Squarcione's workshop.

Andrea Mantegna later claimed that Squarcione had profited from his work without sufficient payment.

Andrea Mantegna's first work, now lost, was an altarpiece for the church of Santa Sofia in 1448.

Andrea Mantegna was criticized for his body forms being too statuesque.

Andrea Mantegna is believed to have studied reproduced castings of these sculptures at Squarcione's Studio.

Andrea Mantegna was influenced by the work of Donatello and models he himself sculpted to capture anatomy.

Andrea Mantegna seems to have been influenced by his old preceptor's strictures, although his later subjects, for example, those from the legend of St Christopher, combine his sculptural style with a greater sense of naturalism and vivacity.

Andrea Mantegna's figures are slim, muscular and bony; the action impetuous but of arrested energy.

Andrea Mantegna spent the rest of his life in Verona, Mantua and Rome; it has not been confirmed that he stayed in Venice and Florence.

The Marquis Ludovico III Gonzaga of Mantua had for some time been pressing Andrea Mantegna to enter his service; and the following year, 1460 Andrea Mantegna was appointed court artist.

Andrea Mantegna's engagement was for a salary of 75 lire a month, a sum so large for that period as to mark conspicuously the high regard in which his art was held.

Andrea Mantegna was in fact the first painter of any eminence to be based in Mantua.

Andrea Mantegna built a stately house in the area of the church of San Sebastiano, and adorned it with a multitude of paintings.

In 1488 Andrea Mantegna was called by Pope Innocent VIII to paint frescoes in a chapel Belvedere in the Vatican.

Andrea Mantegna met the famous Turkish hostage Jem and carefully studied Rome's ancient monuments, but his impression of the city was a disappointing one overall.

Andrea Mantegna was no less eminent as an engraver, though his history in that respect is somewhat obscure, partly because he never signed or dated any of his plates, but for a single disputed instance of 1472.

The account which has come down to us from Vasari is that Andrea Mantegna began engraving in Rome, prompted by the engravings produced by the Florentine Baccio Baldini after Sandro Botticelli.

Giorgio Vasari eulogizes Andrea Mantegna, although pointing out his litigious character.

Andrea Mantegna had been fond of his fellow pupils in Padua: and with two of them, Dario da Trevigi and Marco Zoppo, he retained steady friendships.

In terms of Classical taste, Andrea Mantegna distanced all contemporary competition.

Andrea Mantegna's only known sculpture is a Sant'Eufemia in the Cathedral of Irsina, Basilicata.