Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506, Camera degli Sposi, The West Wall: The Meeting, (detail of the left panel), 1465-74

Teaching with Andrea Mantegna

by Italian Renaissance ArtRenaissance ArtTeaching Resources
Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506, Camera degli Sposi, The West Wall: The Meeting, (detail of the left panel), 1465-74
Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506
Camera degli Sposi, The West Wall: The Meeting, (detail of the left panel), 1465-74, Walnut oil on plaster, Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrea_Mantegna_075.jpg?uselang=it

“How great is the effect of reward on talent is known to him who labors valiantly and receives a certain measure of recompense, for he feels neither discomfort, nor hardship, nor fatigue, when he expects honor and reward for them; nay, what is more, they render his talent every day more renowned and illustrious. It is true, indeed, that there is not always one to recognize, esteem, and remunerate it as that of Andrea Mantegna was recognized. This man was born from very humble stock in the district of Mantua; and, although as a boy he was occupied in grazing herds, he was so greatly exalted by destiny and by his merit that he attained to the honorable rank of Chevalier, as will be told in the proper place…” This is how Giorgio Vasari introduces Andrea Mantegna, the artist who was is “seen to have been wrought with much art and diligence.” Teaching with Andrea Mantegna is a set of student activities and worksheets inspired by the great Italian artist I admire. To visit Andrea’ Camera degli Sposi in the Palazzo Publico in Mantua was for years an unreachable dream. In 1988 along with a group of students/friends my dream came to fruition and I was finally, in the middle of this amazing room… moved, I confess, and emotional.     http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/giorgiovasari/lives/andreamantegna.htm

Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506, The presentation of Christ in the temple (detail-Probably Self-portrait), 1465-1466
Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506
The presentation of Christ in the temple (detail-Probably Self-portrait), 1465-1466, tempera on canvas, 86×67 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Portraits_of_Andrea_Mantegna#/media/File:Andrea_Mantegna_049_detail_possible_self-portrait.jpg

When the time comes for me to introduce my students to Mantegna’s oeuvre I start with Giorgio Vasari’s final words. “Andrea was so kindly and praiseworthy in all his actions, that his memory will ever live, not only in his own country, but in the whole world; wherefore he well deserved, no less for the sweetness of his ways than for his excellence in painting…” and continue with the artist’s tutelage under Squarcione, who “made him practise much on casts taken from ancient statues and on pictures painted upon canvas which he caused to be brought from diverse places, particularly from Tuscany and from Rome. By these and other methods, therefore, Andrea learnt not a little in his youth…” I finish my presentation of Andrea Mantegna’s contribution to world art with his reaction to Squarcione’s criticism that “his pictures resembled not living figures but ancient statues of marble or other suchlike things.” My students are intrigued and a discussion takes place by how “This censure piqued the mind of Andrea; but, on the other hand, it was of great service to him, for, recognizing that Squarcione was in great measure speaking the truth, he set himself to portray living people, and made so much progress in this art, that, in a scene which still remained to be painted in the said chapel, he showed that he could wrest the good from living and natural objects no less than from those wrought by art. But for all this Andrea was ever of the opinion that the good ancient statues were more perfect and had greater beauty in their various parts than is shown by nature, since, as he judged and seemed to see from those statues, the excellent masters of old had wrested from living people all the perfection of nature, which rarely assembles and unites all possible beauty into one single body, so that it is necessary to take one part from one body and another part from another.”     http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/giorgiovasari/lives/andreamantegna.htm

Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506, The San Zeno Polyptych (detail), 1457-60
Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506
The San Zeno Polyptych (detail), 1457-60, Tempera on panel,  480 x 450 cm, San Zeno, Verona
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Details_of_Pala_di_San_Zeno_by_Andrea_Mantegna#/media/File:Andrea_Mantegna_024.jpg

Teaching with Andrea Mantegna References – References, a PowerPoint and Activities…

For the List of ONLINE References on Andrea Mantegna TeacherCurator put together, please… Click HERE!

For my PowerPoint on Andrea Mantegna, please… Click HERE!

I always feel confident discussing an artist with my students when I prepare my 7 Steps to Success Lesson Plan Outline…

7Steps to Success Plan

For Student Activities (5 Activities), please… Click HERE!

I hope that Teaching with Andrea Mantegna will prove easy and helpful. Do you think it justifies my BLOG name Teacher Curator?

Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506, Ceiling decoration of the Camera degli Sposi (detail), 1465-74
Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506
Ceiling decoration of the Camera degli Sposi (detail), 1465-74, Walnut oil on plaster and fresco, Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Camera_picta_-_Ceiling#/media/File:Andrea_mantegna,_camera_degli_sposi,_1465-74,_volta,_oculo,_07.jpg

By an unknown Venetian artist… The Labours of the Months: March, about 1580

The Labours of the Months: March

by Italian Renaissance ArtRenaissance ArtTeaching Resources
By an unknown Venetian artist… The Labours of the Months: March, about 1580
By an unknown Venetian artist…
The Labours of the Months: March, about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-march

Dear March – Come in – / How glad I am – / I hoped for you before – / Put down your Hat – / You must have walked – / How out of Breath you are – / Dear March, how are you, and the Rest – / Did you leave Nature well – /Oh March, Come right upstairs with me –/I have so much to tell –     /     I got your Letter, and the Birds – / The Maples never knew that you were coming – / I declare – how Red their Faces grew – / But March, forgive me – / And all those Hills you left for me to Hue – / There was no Purple suitable – / You took it all with you –     /     Who knocks? That April – / Lock the Door – / I will not be pursued – / He stayed away a Year to call / When I am occupied –  / But trifles look so trivial / As soon as you have come     /     That blame is just as dear as Praise / And Praise as mere as Blame –   Dear March, Come in!, a poem by Emily Dickinson, is about the love and joy it brought to her… She personifies March as if he were a friend… and I find it a fitting introduction to the new POST The Labours of the Months: March!     https://poets.org/poem/dear-march-come-1320     and     https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/emily-dickinson

Church of Panagia Gorgoepikoos, or Hagios Eleftherios or Mikri Mitropolis, 12th or 15th century, Athens
Church of Panagia Gorgoepikoos, or Hagios Eleftherios or Mikri Mitropolis, 12th or 15th century, Athens
http://www.religiousgreece.gr/athens-attica/-/asset_publisher/lpcrESlL5iOO/content/panagia-gorgoepekoos

Depicting The Labours of the Months in works of art is a tradition that goes back to ancient Greek times. The charming Church of Hagios Eleutherios in Athens, also known as the Panagia Gorgoepikoos or the Mikri (Small) Metropolis, made up entirely of spolia of both ancient and Christian monuments, is a good example to start with. Above the main entrance to the Church and under the roof cornice, the builders of this extraordinary church placed “a frieze of Pentelic marble, which shows the months of the Attic Calendar, some festivals, and the complete circle of the Zodiac.” This ancient frieze “attempts to put together and coordinate the lunar calendar (Attic months and festivals) and the solar calendar (the signs of the Zodiac).” Amazing…     https://hellenismo.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/the-frieze-of-the-attic-calendar/

Calendar Frieze at the Church of Panagia Gorgoepikoos or Hagios Eleftherios or Mikri Mitropolis (Date of the Calendar Frieze: 2nd century BC- Date of the Church: 12th or 15th century) Athens
Calendar Frieze at the Church of Panagia Gorgoepikoos or Hagios Eleftherios or Mikri Mitropolis (Date of the Calendar Frieze: 2nd century BC- Date of the Church: 12th or 15th century) Athens
Photo credit: http://surprisedbytime.blogspot.com/2011/10/cyriaco-and-little-metropolis.html
Drawings of the Calendar Frieze in the Church of Panagia Gorgoepikoos or Hagios Eleftherios or Mikri Mitropoli (Date of the Calendar Frieze: 2nd or 15th  century BC- Date of the Church: 12th century) Athens

Drawings of the Calendar Frieze in the Church of Panagia Gorgoepikoos or Hagios Eleftherios or Mikri Mitropoli (Date of the Calendar Frieze: 2nd or 15th  century BC- Date of the Church: 12th century) Athens
https://hellenismo.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/the-frieze-of-the-attic-calendar/

Olga Palagia, Professor of Classical Archeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, argues that the Calendar Frieze, in most probability,  was created in Athens for the Great Panathenaic festivities of the year 142/3. If this small Attic Calendar Frieze, Palagia still argues, is tied to Herodes Atticus, who presented Athens with a number of public buildings…if this Calendar Frieze was part of the grand Athenian marble Panathenaic Stadium complex, built entirely at the expense of Herodes Atticus for the Great Panathenaia that fell in 142/3… well,  makes it most interesting evidence of public Calendar representation… but in the realm of pure speculation!     The date and iconography of the calendar frieze on the little metropolis, Athens, JdI 123, 2008, by Olga Palagia,     https://www.academia.edu/843544/The_date_and_iconography_of_the_calendar_frieze_on_the_little_metropolis_Athens_JdI_123_2008

SO… The Calendar of the Months during Antiquity and the Labours of the Months later in history attracts our attention in Calendar works of Art adorning public buildings, Churches and Cathedrals of the time, striking Vitreaux Windows, amazingly colourful manuscripts, and paintings, monumental, like the eleven surviving panels in Torre Aquila I presented in 2020 (check: https://www.teachercurator.com/?s=torre%20aquila&cat=plus-5-results), or small, like the paintings in the National Gallery, in London, we will explore in 2021… month by month…     https://archive.org/details/labormonth00webs/page/n9/mode/2up Webster, James Carson – 1905-1989, The labors of the months in antique and mediaeval art to the end of the twelfth century, 1938, Evanston, Ill., Northwestern University,     and      https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-march

By an unknown Venetian artist… The Labours of the Months: March (detail) , about 1580
By an unknown Venetian artist…
The Labours of the Months: March (detail) , about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-march

For the Venetian Month of March at the National Gallery, we have yet another outdoor scene. “A bearded man wearing a yellow tunic trims vines that have been trained to grow up two trees. The branches of the vine are bare, while the trees have a few brownish leaves. Pruning vines is an activity carried out in Italy in winter, when the plant is dormant, and in spring when the new leaves have started to grow.” Once more, young farmers need to bundle up and take care of the daily chores…     https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-march

For a PowerPoint on The Labours of the Months at the National Gallery in London, please… Check HERE!

By an unknown Venetian artist… The Labours of the Months: March, about 1580, and Calendar Frieze at the Church of Panagia Gorgoepikoos, Hagios Eleftherios or Mikri Mitropoli (Date of the Calendar Frieze: 2nd century BC- Date of the Church: 12th or 15th century) Athens  
By an unknown Venetian artist…
The Labours of the Months: March, about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, London     https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-march
Calendar Frieze at the Church of Panagia Gorgoepikoos, Hagios Eleftherios or Mikri Mitropoli (Date of the Calendar Frieze: 2nd century BC- Date of the Church: 12th or 15th century) Athens     http://surprisedbytime.blogspot.com/2011/10/cyriaco-and-little-metropolis.html