Palazzo del Te

Coordinates: 45°08′51″N 10°47′14″E / 45.14737°N 10.78728°E / 45.14737; 10.78728
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Palazzo del Tè
)

Palazzo del Te
Federico II Gonzaga
Design and construction
Architect(s)Giulio Romano
Website
www.centropalazzote.it

Palazzo del Te, or simply Palazzo Te, 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 Palazzo del Te. In Italian, the name is now commonly shortened to Palazzo Te.

It was originally named after Il Te, the suburb where it was built.[1][2] The toponym is most likely derived from Lombard tejee or tejé, referring to a "linden grove" that once grew in the area, or alternatively from Latin attegia "hut".[3] Art historian Giorgio Vasari spelled the name Palazzo del T, based on the now archaic Italian-language name of the letter T.[2]

History

Palazzo del Te 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 Isola del Te, on the edge of the marshes just outside Mantua's city walls, as early as in 1502.[3]

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 Esedra.

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

Mannerism's most famous fresco: Giulio Romano's illusionism invents a dome overhead and dissolves the room's architecture in the Fall of the Giants.

Like the

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

Archway to the semicircular colonnade

The frescoes are the most remarkable feature of the Palazzo. The subjects range from

giants and grotesques
wreaking havoc, fury, and ruin around the walls of the Sala dei Giganti ("Hall of the Giants"). These magnificent rooms, once furnished to complement the ducal court of 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 Casino della Grotta ("Lodge of the Grotto"), a small suite of intimate rooms arranged around a

shells
encrusted in the floor and walls.

Part of the Palazzo today houses the Museo Civico del Palazzo Te (Civic Museum of Palazzo del Te), endowed by the publisher

Mesopotamian
art.

Gallery

  • Model
    Model
  • Model
    Model
  • Loggia
    Loggia
  • Internal façade
    Internal façade
  • Casino della Grotta
    Casino della Grotta
  • "Serlian window" archway
    "
    Serlian window
    " archway
  • Cortile featuring "dropped" triglyphs
    Cortile featuring "dropped" triglyphs
  • The Fall of the Giants (La Caduta dei Giganti)
    The Fall of the Giants (La Caduta dei Giganti)
  • Hall of Horses (Salla dei Cavalli)
    Hall of Horses (Salla dei Cavalli)
  • Quadrato
    Quadrato

References

  1. ^ Migliorini, Bruno; Tagliavini, Carlo; Fiorelli, Piero; Borri, Tommaso Francesco. "Te, il". Dizionario di Ortografia e di Pronunzia della lingua italiana (in Italian). RAI. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  2. ^
    The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
    (in Italian). [...] sua eccellenza aveva un luogo e certe stalle, chiamato il T, in mezzo a una prateria"; "Ma tornando alle stanze del T [...]"; "Parimente a Marmiruolo, luogo lontano da Mantova cinque miglia, fu fatta con ordine e disegno di Giulio una comodissima fabbrica e grandi pitture, non men belle che quelle del castello e del palazzo del T.
  3. ^ a b "Il luogo e il nome". Palazzo Te (in Italian). Retrieved 9 November 2023.

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Palazzo Te (Mantua).
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