The "camera picta" created by Mantegna in Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, one of the high points of Italian Renaissance painting, restored to its original luminous splendor.
The “camera picta” created by Mantegna in Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, completed by 1474, represents a high point in Italian Renaissance painting, a unique work in iconological terms. In the cycle the artist manages to communicate a myriad of meanings in a very accessible way: through new, complex spatial and perspective solutions, the characteristics and expressions of an extraordinary family group, that of the house of Gonzaga, the outdoor scenes, the city and country landscapes where imagination and memory blend to give a sense of reality to the painter’s vivid vision of antiquity, the illusions of the work on the ceiling, treated as a cupola open to a sky crossed by clouds. The volume sheds light on this exceptional artistic gem, returned to its full luminosity by major restoration work. Actual-size reproductions and a series of historical-critical texts offer readers a moving experience of a masterpiece.