Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue

Mantegna was obsessed with Roman antiquity and with perspective, and pushed both harder than was comfortable. The Lamentation over the Dead Christ shows the body feet first in extreme foreshortening, an arrangement that still looks aggressive. He worked for the Gonzaga family in Mantua for nearly fifty years. The Camera degli Sposi, painted for their private chamber, opens the ceiling into a painted oculus with figures and a peacock looking down into the room, the first illusion of its kind. The figures are sculptural to the point of looking carved, with drapery like folded metal and stone architecture everywhere. He collected Roman fragments, studied inscriptions, and made engravings that spread the style north. Bellini was his brother in law, and the influence ran both ways.