Palazzo Del Tè

, or simply , is a palace in the suburbs of Mantua, Italy. It is an example of the mannerist style of architecture, and the acknowledged masterpiece of Giulio Romano.

Name

The palace is mostly referred to by English-speaking writers, especially art historians, as . In Italian, the name is now commonly shortened to .

It was originally named after , the suburb where it was built. The toponym is most likely derived from Lombard or , referring to a "linden grove" that once grew in the area, or alternatively from Latin "hut". Art historian Giorgio Vasari spelled the name , based on the now archaic Italian-language name of the letter T.

History

was constructed 1524–34 for Federico II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, as a palace of leisure. The site chosen was that of the family stables which he had built at , on the edge of the marshes just outside Mantua's city walls, as early as in 1502.

Giulio Romano, a pupil of Raphael, was commissioned to design the building. The shell of the palazzo, erected within eighteen months, is basically a square house containing a cloistered courtyard. A formal garden complemented the house, enclosed by colonnaded outbuildings ending in a semicircular colonnade known as the Exedra or .

Once the shell of the building was completed, for ten years a team of plasterers, carvers, and fresco painters laboured until barely a surface in any of the loggias or salons remained undecorated. Under Romano's direction, local decorative painters such as Benedetto Pagni and Rinaldo Mantovano worked extensively on the frescos.

In July 1630, during the War of the Mantuan Succession (1628–31), Mantua and the palace were sacked over three days by an Imperial army of 36,000 Landsknecht mercenaries. The remaining populace fell victim to one of the worst plagues in history that the invaders had brought with them. The Palazzo was looted from top to bottom and remained an empty shell with nymphs, gods, goddesses, and giants adorning the walls of the empty, echoing rooms.

Description

Like the Villa Farnesina in Rome, the suburban location allowed for a mixing of both palace and villa architecture. The four exterior façades have flat pilasters against rusticated walls, the fenestration indicating that the is the ground floor, with a secondary floor above. The East façade differs from the other three by having Palladian motifs on its pilaster and an open loggia at its centre rather than an arch to the courtyard. The facades are not so symmetrical as they appear and the spans between the columns are irregular. The centers of the North and South facades are pierced by two-storey arches without portico or pediment, simply a covered way leading to the interior courtyard.

Few windows overlook the inner courtyard (""); the colonnaded walls are decorated on all sides by deep niches and blind windows, and the intervening surfaces are spattered by (broken and blemished plaster) giving life and depth to the surfaces.

The frescoes are the most remarkable feature of the Palazzo. The subjects range from Olympian banquets in the ("Hall of Psyche") and stylised horses in the ("Hall of the Horses") to the most unusual of all — giants and grotesques wreaking havoc, fury, and ruin around the walls of the ("Hall of the Giants").
These magnificent rooms, once furnished to complement the ducal court of the Gonzaga family, saw many of the most illustrious figures of their era entertained, such as the Emperor Charles V, who, when visiting in 1530, elevated his host Federico II of Gonzaga from Marquess to Duke of Mantua.

One of the most evocative parts of the lost era of the palazzo is the ("Lodge of the Grotto"), a small suite of intimate rooms arranged around a grotto and (covered balcony) where courtiers once bathed in the small cascade that splashed over the pebbles and shells encrusted in the floor and walls.

Part of the Palazzo today houses the (Civic Museum of Palazzo del Te), endowed by the publisher Arnoldo Mondadori. It contains a collection of Mesopotamian art.

Gallery

Image:Modellino in legno di Palazzo Te in Palazzo Te - Mantova (II).jpg, Model
Image:Modellino in legno di Palazzo Te in Palazzo Te - Mantova.jpg, Model
Image:39PalazzoTe.jpg, Loggia
Image:Palazzo Te Mantova 3.jpg, Internal façade
Image:Palazzo te giardino segreto.jpg, Casino della Grotta
Image:Palazzo Te Mantova 2.jpg, " Serlian window" archway
Image:Palazzo Te Mantova 1.jpg, featuring "dropped" triglyphs
File:Gigants1.jpg, The Fall of the Giants ()
File:Sala dei Cavalli.jpg, Hall of Horses ()
File:Quadrato centrale e 4 semiottagoni.png, Quadrato
File:Palazzo te, camerino di venere, con grottesche e toeletta di venere di girolamo da pontremoli, 1534.jpg
File:Palazzo te, camerino delle grottesche, di andrea de conti e luca da faenza, 1533, 01.jpg

References

Sources

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External links

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Mantua tourist guide

Palazzo Te
at Google Arts & Culture

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palazzo Del Te
Giulio Romano buildings
Houses completed in 1534
Te
Renaissance architecture in Mantua
Fresco paintings in Mantua
Mannerist architecture in Italy
Historic house museums in Italy
Egyptological collections in Italy
Numismatic museums in Italy
Art museums and galleries in Lombardy
1534 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Museums in Mantua
Gonzaga residences
Loggias in Italy