La ritrattistica gonzaghesca in epoca ducale (1530-1708)

The Gonzaga's portraiture during the ducal era (1530-1708) The proposed study explores the iconography of the Gonzaga's portraiture during the ducal era (1530-1708). The theme is developed through an interdisciplinary approach. The work provides with a rich set of images and introduces a systematic study – realized thanks to unpublished archive documents – of the Gonzaga's Iconographic Exhibition (Mantua, 1937). The first limit of my work is chronological, since it deals with two centuries, that is from Duke Federico II Gonzaga's nomination by Charles V to Ferdinando Carlo – the tenth duke – Gonzaga Nevers's death. My analysis considers only the main family branch, the Corradi da Gonzaga, and the Gonzaga Nevers, their successors since 1627. On the other hand this choice let it possible to explore not only the dukes' portraits, but also those representing their wives and children; therefore the iconographic corpus is extremely rich and various. The iconographic collection includes about five hundreds paintings arranged following two main criteria: first, they are ordered chronologically according to their subject's apparent age; secondly, paintings clearly linked to a common prototype are grouped together regardless of chronology. Even if the main approach is historic-artistic, it has been necessary to exploit other disciplines to clearly and deeply understand the topic. Among them Paleoanthropology – when possible – was used to reconstruct faces from skull analysis in order to evaluate the portraits. Also Hoplology, the History of fashion, of awards and of mottoes has been considered. A fundamental section of the work was the archival research that aimed to shed light on a very peculiar event in the History of Italian Art: the Gonzaga's Iconography Exhibition, held in 1937 in the Ducal Palace of Mantua, which sank into oblivion, regardless of its merits and defects, just because it was organized under the Fascist regime. Thanks to the exhibition it was possible to explore a subject unknown until that period and, for the first time, the iconography of an Italian family during the Renaissance was studied systematically. The discovering in the Archive of the State in Mantua of unpublished documents helped to identify unknown and barely known works; thanks to these documents a precise reconstruction of the exhibition was possible. Finally, a systematic approach to auction catalogs and photo libraries helped to trace several paintings that are currently unavailable or that were not identified while present in the antiquities markets. This wide interdisciplinary research led to the identification of hundreds paintings, classified and set according to chronology and to their iconographic model. The proposed periodisation based on typology and commission is highly significant. Amongst the most precious works the survey deals with, some portraits linked to Frans Pourbus the Young are relevant: the magnificent full-length figure portrait of Vincenzo I Gonzaga conserved at Ca' Vendramin Calergi in Venice, a copy (or version) of Margherita Savoia Gonzaga's portrait nowadays in San Carlo al Corso in Rome (antiquities market), and Ritratto di Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga Nevers - Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga Nevers's portrait- by Hyacinthe Rigaud, pendant his second wife's one, Suzanne Henriette d’Elboeuf, conserved in the deposits of Versailles. During the research several paintings have been studied and, even if their quality was not excellent or low, they are though relevant for having transmitted the lost original model, hoping that the loss is temporary.