List of artworks in the Gonzaga collection

(Redirected from Gonzaga Collection)

The Gonzaga Collection or Celeste Gallery (la Celeste Galeria) was the large collection of artworks commissioned and acquired by the House of Gonzaga in Mantua, Italy, exhibited for a time in the Palazzo Ducale, the Palazzo Te, the Palazzo San Sebastiano and other buildings in Mantua and elsewhere.

Mantova, Palazzo Ducale
Mantua, Palazzo Ducale
Mantova, Palazzo Te
Mantua, Palazzo Te

The Gonzagas were inspired by the wunderkammer style of collecting practised by the princes of Bavaria, with Isabella d'Este in particular creating a noted private 'studiolo'. They set an example for other European courts, particularly in their patronage of contemporary artists, whilst their collecting increased the international profile of Mantua, a relatively small state. It reached its peak under Vincenzo I Gonzaga and his son Ferdinando, before the family's decline led to major losses from the collection, such as the long negotiations from 1625 onwards with Charles I of Great Britain, mediated by two members of the Whitehall Group – the Flemish art dealer Daniel Nys and Nicholas Lanier, Master of the King's Music.[1][2] These culminated in 1627 with most of the Gonzaga collections being sent to London. This ensured their preservation, unlike the artworks still in Mantua when the city was sacked in 1630.

Its works are now split between museums and private collections across the world, as shown by the 2002–2003 exhibition Gonzaga. La Celeste Galeria. Il Museo dei Duchi di Mantova at the Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale, which included around ninety paintings from the total of approximately 2,000 originally in the collection. As well as paintings, the collection also included decorative work in gold and precious stones such as the Gonzaga Cameo along with natural history specimens or 'mirabilia'.

List

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Sofonisba Anguissola, Bernardino Campi painting Sofonisba Anguissola
Anonymous
Cristofano Allori
  • Judith with the Head of Holofernes, 1613, oil on canvas, 120x100 cm, Royal Collection
Sofonisba Anguissola
  • Bernardino Campi painting a portrait of Sofonisba Angiussola, c. 1556, oil on canvas, 111×109.5 cm, Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale
  • Self portrait at the easel (?), Lancut, Muzeum Zamet
Giovanni Baglione
  • Allegory of Justice and Peace, oil on canvas, 255.3×227 cm, Royal Collection
  • Apollo, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Calliope, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Clio, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Erato, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Euterpe, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Polymnia, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Terpsichore, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Thalia, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Urania, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
Jacopo Bassano
Pieter Bruegel the Younger
 
The Butcher's Shop', Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci
Ludovico Carracci
  • Ecstacy of St Francis, oil on panel, 67×51 cm, Parma, private collection
Correggio
 
Correggio, Allegory of Virtue
Lorenzo Costa
  • Reign of Comus, 1504, oil on panel, 160×192 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre
  • Isabella d'Este in the kingdom of Harmonia or Allegory of the coronation of Isabella d'Este, 1505, oil on panel, 164.5×197.5 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre
  • Portrait of a woman with a dog, c. 1500, oil on panel, 45.5×35.1 cm, Royal Collection
  • Madonna and Child,[3] c. 1500, painting on panel, 71×55 cm, London, private collection
Lucas Cranach (after)
  • Lucretia, oil on panel, 42×27.7 cm, Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale
Domenichino (born Domenico Zampieri)
  • Rinaldo and Armida, oil on canvas, 121×167 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre
  • Sant'Agnese, oil on canvas, 212.7×152.4 cm, Royal Collection
Ludovico Dondi
  • Julius Caesar in his triumphal chariot, oil on copper, 19.5×18.5 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
  • Men carrying booty and trophies of royal armour, oil on copper, 18.5×10 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
  • Men carrying booty, trumpeters and sacrificial bulls, oil on copper, 19.5×16.5 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
  • Prisoners and standard bearers, oil on copper, 19.5×19 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
  • Trophies, war machines, inscriptions and representations of defeated cities, oil on copper, 20×18 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
 
Domenico Fetti, The Penitent Magdalene
Domenico Fetti
  • Christ in the Garden, oil on canvas, 90.5×55.5 Prague, National Gallery
  • Elijah Triumphing over the Prophets of Baal, oil on panel, 61.2×70.5, Royal Collection
  • Sage-seed greenhouse, oil on panel, 60.8×44.5, Prague, Castle Gallery
  • Margherita Gonzaga receiving the model of the Church of S.Orsola, 1619–1623, oil on canvas, 245×276 cm, Mantua, Museo del Palazzo Ducale
  • Portrait of an astronomer, oil on canvas, 98×73.5, Dresden, Gemaldegalerie
  • Posthumous portrait of Federico II Gonzaga, I Duke of Mantua, oil on canvas, 99×88, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemaeldegaleire
  • Vision of St Peter, oil on panel, 66×51, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
  • The Penitent Magdalene, 1617–21, oil on canvas, 98×78.5 cm, Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphilj
Lavinia Fontana
  • Portrait of Antonietta Gonzalus, 1594–1595, oil on panel, 57×46 cm, Blois, Musée du Chateau
  • The Queen of Sheba Visiting King Solomon, Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland
Lorenzo Garbieri
Garofalo
  • The Holy Family with the Infant St John the Baptist and St Elisabeth, oil on panel, 47.5×32 cm, London, Courtauld Institute of Art
Guercino
  • Erminia among the shepherds, oil on canvas, 149×178 cm, Birmingham (UK), Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
 
Triple portrait of a goldsmith, Lorenzo Lotto
Lorenzo Lotto
Andrea Mantegna
 
Andrea Mantegna, Death of the Virgin
Michelangelo
Domenico Morone
 
Frans Pourbus the Younger, Portrait of Vincenzo I Gonzaga
Pietro Perugino
Frans Pourbus the Younger
 
Giulio Romano, Portrait of Margherita Paleologa, Royal Collection, 1531[4]
Guido Reni
  • The Labours of Hercules, 1617–1621, a series of four canvases commissioned by Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga, Paris, Musée du Louvre:
    • Hercules on fire
    • Hercules and Archelaus
    • Hercules and the Hydra
    • Nessus raping Deianira
Guido Reni (after)
  • The Toilet of Venus, London, National Gallery
Giulio Romano
  • Madonna and Child with St Anne, oil on panel, 58×48 cm, frame under construction, Prague, Castle Gallery
  • Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, oil on panel, 110.5×133.4 cm, Mantua, private collection
  • Emperor on horseback, oil on panel, 83×54 cm, London, Trafalgar Galleries
  • The Birth of Bacchus, oil on panel, 126.5×80 cm, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
  • La Perla (using drawings by Raphael), c. 1518–1520, oil on canvas, 144×115 cm, Madrid, Museo del Prado
  • Portrait of Margherita Paleologa, c. 1531, oil on canvas, 115.5×90.5 cm, Royal Collection
Workshop of Giulio Romano
  • Fortune, 1520–1546, oil on canvas, 96.2×49.8 cm, Royal Collection[5]
  • Jupiter and Juno taking possession of the throne of Paradise, 1530, oil on canvas, 111×135.5 cm, Royal Collection[6]
  • The Theatre of the Caesars: Nero plays while Rome burns, 1536–1539, oil on canvas, 121.5 x 106.7 cm, Royal Collection[7]
 
Portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga aged three, Pieter Paul Rubens
Pieter Paul Rubens
 
Francesco II Gonzaga at the Battle of Taro, Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), 1579
Domenico Tintoretto
  • Tancred baptising Clorinda, c. 1585, oil on canvas, 168×115 cm, Houston, Museum of Fine Arts
  • Mary Magdalene, Rome, Pinacoteca Capitolina
Jacopo Tintoretto
Titian
 
Titian, Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga
Various artists (designs by)
Veronese
  • Judith with the Head of Holofernes, oil on canvas, 111×110 cm, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Antonio Maria Viani
  • Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, oil on canvas, 54.5×42.5 cm, Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale

Notes

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  1. ^ "Vincenzo II, settimo duca di Mantova". Archived from the original on 19 March 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  2. ^ Favaretto 2002, p. 131.
  3. ^ "Catalogo : Costa Lorenzo, Madonna con Bambino". fe.fondazionezeri.unibo.it. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  4. ^ "Portrait of Margherita Palaeologa". www.royalcollection.org.uk. Archived from the original on 17 July 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  5. ^ "Fortuna". www.royalcollection.org.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  6. ^ "Jupiter and Juno". www.royalcollection.org.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  7. ^ "Nero playing while Rome burns". www.royalcollection.org.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  8. ^ Pendant to The Gonzaga Family Adoring the Holy Trinity in the Gesuiti church.
  9. ^ "Esther before Ahasuerus". Royal Collection Trust. Retrieved 2023-09-13.
  10. ^ Lapenta & Morselli 2006, p. 243.
  11. ^ Lapenta & Morselli 2006, p. 197.
  12. ^ Lapenta & Morselli 2006, p. 336.
  13. ^ Lapenta & Morselli 2006, p. 332.

Bibliography

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  • Raffaella Morselli (ed), La Celeste Galleria, Milan, Skira, 2002.
  • Lapenta, Stefania; Morselli, Raffaella (2006). La quadreria nell'elenco dei beni del 1626–1627. Cinisello Balsamo, Milan: Silvana. ISBN 88-8215-427-0.
  • Favaretto, Irene (2002). Arte antica e cultura antiquaria nelle collezioni venete al tempo della Serenissima (Riv. e corr. ed.). Roma: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider. ISBN 8882652238.
  • Adelaide Murgia, I Gonzaga, Milan, Mondadori, 1972.
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