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Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ludovico III Gonzaga
Marquis of Mantua
The Court of Mantua, detail:
Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua
Born5 June 1412
Mantua, Margravate of Mantua
Died12 June 1478(1478-06-12) (aged 66)
Goito, Margravate of Mantua
Noble familyGonzaga
Spouse(s)Barbara of Brandenburg
IssueFederico I
Francesco
Gianfrancesco
Dorotea
Rodolfo
Barbara
FatherGianfrancesco I Gonzaga
MotherPaola Malatesta

Ludovico III Gonzaga of Mantua, known as the Turk (Italian: il Turco),[1] also spelled Lodovico (also Ludovico II; 5 June 1412 – 12 June 1478) was the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua from 1444 to his death in 1478.[2]

YouTube Encyclopedic

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Transcription

(lighthearted music) Female Voiceover: Let's talk about this frescoed room by Andrea Mantegna. Male Voiceover: First a little background information. Mantenga was active in Northern Italy, first in Padua, also Ferrara, and around the Veneto in the middle of the 1400s. Then, in 1460, he's appointed by the Marquis of Mantua, Ludovico Gonzaga, to be the court artist of the Court of Mantua, so he moves there in the 1460s. Female Voiceover: It's really important to recognize that what's happening in Mantua is going to be really different than what's happening in Florence. Male Voiceover: Yeah, in other kinds of cities, Mantua, at this time, is a court; it's ruled by a marquis, which is a step below a duke, the Gonzaga family who'd been in control for quite a while are the single dominant rulers of the city. It's very different from a situation, as you pointed out, Florence, or Venice, which are republics. So, Mantegna comes and he begins working on this project, which is called the Camera Picta, or the Camera degli Sposi, which- Female Voiceover: Camera just means Male Voiceover: Room. Male Voiceover: Camera Picta means the 'painted room'. One thing to point out is that besides the door frame, and the mantle piece and some architectural features like these brackets at the bottom of the vault, everything that we're looking at is paint. Female Voiceover: It's just amazing to me that it's all paint. Male Voiceover: It's completely frescoed. All of the things that look like architectural decoration, and ornaments, and moldings, Female Voiceover: And molding. all of this is fresco. Female Voiceover: He made it look as though the walls are actually open. Male Voiceover: We have the ceiling that's decorated with these architectural and sculptural forms, and then it has an oculus, or this open hole at the center of the ceiling that we'll take a look at, all painted, and painted very, very naturalisticly and with the careful attention to perspective, as if you are seeing 3-dimensional objects from below or on the walls and that makes it illusionistic, as if it's really there. Female Voiceover: And we're, what, about 40 or 50 years after the death of Masaccio, so it really in that full swing of the early Renaissance, and humanism, the [unintelligible] discovery of classical antiquity. Male Voiceover: That's right, and Mantegna was a big part of that. Speaking of classical antiquity, and we can start on the ceiling, and what we see is this oculus, and then surrounding it is this architectural and sculptural ornamentation that's extremely classisizing in terms of the molding and the details in the ribbons and the garlands, and the putti, Female Voiceover: And the putti. and what they're holding are fictive reliefs of the first eight ancient Roman emperors; and so, also [within] the subject matter, the ceiling is extremely classical. What's important to point out is that, we talk a lot about classical antiquity in the Renaissance, and the revival of antiquity, but it's important to remember that different types of cities drew from different types of classical antiquity, and what we're looking at here with these portraits of the emperors, is an imperial classical antiquity, which is entirely appropriate for a court city like Mantua that's ruled by a marquis or any other city ruled by a duke. But this kind of imagery would have been completely inappropriate in a place like Florence. Private citizens in a republic would not have been allowed to decorate, Female Voiceover: (laughs) or ruin their house with Roman emperors. Female Voiceover: No, Florence looked back to the period of ancient Rome when it was a republic. Male Voiceover: So, it's important to remember that for the people in the Renaissance, they were able to distinguish between different types of classical antiquity, and pick what was most relevant to them. Below that, again, we see this open space, and on the walls are frescoes of the Marquis Ludovico and his everyday life scenes in what supposedly Mantuan territory scenes from his activities. Here we see Ludovico meeting with his son, the cardinal. In the landscape there's some putti that are standing up on top of the door holding an inscription, and then on this wall we see Ludovico and his wife and his family and his favorite dog and the court little person all sitting around while he receives a message from an adviser on the far left. Then, coming up the stairs on the right are some visitors who are coming to greet him, and that might be related to the function of this room, which might have been a kind of ceremonial greeting space. You see this extremely naturalistic, illusionistic painting that creates the fiction of architectural spaces. Look at how the curtain seems to be pulled forward and in front of the column, so sometimes it's really hard to distinguish between what's real and what's not. Female Voiceover: There's a lot of fun clearly in playing with those boundaries and using perspective to fool the eye. Male Voiceover: Right, because you are looking slightly up at these figures, they're standing on top of the fireplace, and notice that you actually do look up at them. You can see slightly up into the bottom of their tunics, so you don't see the top surfaces of the stairs or the floor that they're standing on; so, Mantegna's painting it as if you're really seeing them elevated in that position. This is a part that's intentionally fun and humorous. This is the oculus, this opening. Oculus means eye in Latin. Female Voiceover: That's not a real opening. Male Voiceover: Not a real opening; it's just painted from this Di sotto in su, from below, radical perspective. So, we see everything very foreshortened, the balustade, this railing that circles the oculus. The putti that are standing here, you seem them very foreshortened from below. Here's a peacock that we see from below. You see several servants, including an African one, standing around and they're looking down and they're laughing. If you look very carefully, you'll notice that one of these women has her hand on this pole that's supporting this pot with a plant in it; and the suggestion, I think, is that she's about to pull that pole away and that potted plant is going to fall right on your head. So, that's the joke; you're standing there looking up with your mouth hanging open, and suddenly you realize that there's the joke, the illusion, of these objects that are going to fall on you. Female Voiceover: In fact, there are other figures who look like they could drop things on us Male Voiceover: Out of their hands, or- other parts of their body. Male Voiceover: Right, because look at these putti, not wearing diapers with their little rear ends sticking out, or the front of them facing us, and so there may be other things falling on you, too. On the one hand, this room gives us a serious subject matter of the marquis as a ruler of his domain, with this serious, imperial, classisizing imagery of the ancient Roman emperors on the ceiling, but at the same time, in a kind of marginal location, above your head, what you might not see right away, there's this puerile, humorous joking quality that lightens the atmosphere a little bit. (lighthearted music)

Biography

Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga.

Ludovico was the son of Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga and Paola Malatesta daughter of Malatesta IV Malatesta of Pesaro.[3]

Ludovico followed the path of his father, Gianfrancesco, fighting as a condottiero from as early as 1432, when Gianfrancesco was vice-commander of Francesco Bussone's army.[4] In 1433, he married Barbara of Brandenburg,[3] niece of emperor Sigismund.[4]

Starting from 1436 (perhaps without the approval of his father)[4] he entered the service of the Visconti of the Duchy of Milan. The result was that Gianfrancesco exiled Ludovico from Mantua, together with his wife,[4] naming Carlo Gonzaga as heir. However, in 1438 Gianfrancesco himself was hired by the Visconti, and reconciled with Ludovico in 1441.[4] Ludovico succeeded to the marquisate of Mantua in 1444,[5] although part of the family fiefs went to his brothers Carlo, Gianlucido and Alessandro.[4] At the time, the Mantuan state was reduced in size and in poor conditions after years of war and large expenses.[4]

From 1445 to 1450 Ludovico served as condottiero for Milan, Florence, Venice, and Naples, switching his allegiance in order to grant a higher level of peace for his lands.[4] In 1448 he took part in the battle of Caravaggio, and was forced to flee. In 1449 he entered the service of Venice in the league formed with Florence against Milan. In 1450 he received permission to lead an army for King Alfonso of Naples in Lombardy, with the intent of gaining some possessions for himself. However, Francesco Sforza, the new duke of Milan, enticed him into an alliance with the promise of turning over to him Lonato, Peschiera and Asola, formerly Mantuan territories but then part of Venice. Venice responded by sacking Castiglione delle Stiviere (1452) and hiring Ludovico's brother, Carlo.[5]

Carlo Gonzaga invaded his brother Ludovico's Mantuan territories on 9 March 1453 with 4,000 soldiers, seizing Castelbelforte (then known as Castelbonafisso) and Bigarello. Ludovico gathered an army of 3,000 horse and 500 infantry and along with a detachment of Milanese troops led by the condottiere Tiberio Brandolini defeated Carlo at Castellaro Lagusello near Monzambano. Ludovico then pursued the retreating Carlo across the river Adige and on 14 June 1453 routed the troops of Carlo Gonzaga at Villabona near Goito.[6] Venetian troops under Niccolò Piccinino however thwarted his attempt to regain Asola. The Peace of Lodi (1454) obliged Ludovico to give back all his conquests, and to renounce definitively his claim to the three cities.[5] However, he obtained his brother's land after Carlo's childless death in 1456.

Medal of Ludovico III Gonzaga (1475).

The moment of highest prestige for Mantua was the Council, held in the city from 27 May 1459 to 19 January 1460, summoned by Pope Pius II to launch a crusade against the Ottoman Turks, who had conquered Constantinople some years earlier.[7] However, the pope was not satisfied with the host city, writing: "The place was marshy and unhealthy, and the heat burnt up everything; the wine was unpalatable and the food unpleasant." However, the council ended on a note of great personal prestige for Ludovico with the elevation of his son Francesco to the purple.[8]

From 1466 Ludovico was more or less constantly at the service of the Sforza of Milan. He died in Goito in 1478, during a plague. He was buried in Mantua cathedral.[5]

Education

Medal by Pisanello, c. 1447

On the orders of his father, Ludovico's education had been entrusted to the humanist Vittorino da Feltre. Vittorino undertook "the difficult enterprise in the interests of the commonwealth for... the education of a good prince would benefit the people he ruled." The teaching was markedly moral and religious and contained a "vein of laical asceticism almost." This, argues the arts scholar Franco Borsi, explains not only Ludovico's religious faith that led him to found churches and host Pius II's Council, but also his concern for a humanistic culture and the growth in public works throughout the city, from the paving of the streets and building of a clock tower to the reorganization of the city centre.[8] Among the famous humanists invited to the city was the Genoese scholar Leon Battista Alberti, who designed the San Sebastiano church and the San' Andrea church. Also, in 1460, Ludovico appointed Andrea Mantegna as court artist to the Gonzaga family.

Ludovico is featured in the Treatise on Architecture, from c. 1465, by the Florentine sculptor-architect Antonio di Pietro Averlino (c. 1400 – c. 1469), better known as Filarete.[9] The treatise takes the format of a Platonic dialogue, featuring an unnamed architect (evidently Filarete himself) who is building a new city for a princely patron (evidently Francesco Sforza of Milan). During the dialogue interspersing the treatise they are visited by another lord, in the figure of Ludovico: his role in the dialogue is to persuade Sforza that he has seen the error of his ways in showing favour to "modern architecture", by which is meant Gothic architecture, and, having seen the architecture of antiquity in Rome, now favours such architecture instead, which is also what Filarete is also trying to persuade his patron.[citation needed]

Children

The Court of Mantua. At the left, Ludovico II Gonzaga. Besides him his wife Barbara von Brandenburg and their siblings Ludovico Gonzaga, Paola Gonzaga and Rodolfo Gonzaga.

Ludovico III and Barbara had fourteen children:

In addition, Ludovico III had two illegitimate daughters: Caterina (wife of Gianfrancesco Secco, Conte di Calcio) and Gabriella (wife of Corrado Fogliani, Marchese di Vighizzolo).

It was said that the daughters of Barbara and Ludovico III had hunched backs, that is why Susanna was spurned by Galeazzo Maria Sforza and the marriage with Dorotea was delayed until the Milanese court found that her physical problems aren't so notorious like her oldest sister. Leonhard of Gorizia also postponed his marriage to Paola due to this and when they eventually married they had one stillborn child as it is thought that this deformity in her made it harder to have children.[11][dubious ]

See also

References

  1. ^ U. Benigni (1913). "Diocese of Mantua" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. ^ Coniglio, Giuseppe (1967). I Gonzaga. Varese: Dall'Oglio.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Antenhofer 2001, p. 58.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lazzarini, Isabella. "LUDOVICO III Gonzaga, marchese di Mantova". Istituto Enciclopedico Italiano. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  5. ^ a b c d Damiani, Roberto (17 January 2011). "Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330 - 1550" [Biographical Notes of the War Captains and Commanders of Ventura operating in Italy in 1330 - 1550]. Condottieri di ventura (in Italian). Archived from the original on 18 May 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011. Translate this Italian web page to English
  6. ^ Volta, L.C. Compendio cronologico-critico della Storia di Mantova, dalla sua fondazione sino ai nostri tempi Mantova: Francesco Agazzi, 1827, 135.
  7. ^ salvatores. "Biblioteca Teresiana - Viewer". bibliotecateresiana.it. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  8. ^ a b Borsi, Franco (1977). Leon Battista Alberti. New York: Harper & Row.
  9. ^ Filarete's Treatise on Architecture; Being the Treatise by Antonio di Piero Averlino, Known as Filarete. Translated with an Introduction by John R. Spencer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965.
  10. ^ James 2020, p. xvi.
  11. ^ Marie Ferranti, The Princess of Mantua. Hesperus Press, 2005.

Sources

  • James, Carolyn (2020). A Renaissance Marriage: The Political and Personal Alliance of Isabella d'Este & Francesco Gonzaga, 1490-1519. Oxford University Press.
  • Murgia, Adelaide (1972). I Gonzaga. Milan: Mondadori.
  • Antenhofer, Christina (2001). "From Local Signori to European High Nobility: The Gonzaga Family Networks in the Fifteenth Century". In Johnson, Christopher H.; Sabean, David Warren; Teuscher, Simon; Trivellato, Francesca (eds.). Transregional and Transnational Families in Europe and Beyond: Experiences. Berghahn books.


Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua
Born: 5 June 1412 Died: 12 June 1478
Preceded by Marquis of Mantua
1444–1478
Succeeded by
This page was last edited on 1 May 2024, at 23:17
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