9 
302 M A N T 
graver, was born in 1451 (others fay 1431), at a village 
near Padua, of fo mean a parentage, that in his youth he 
was fent to keep theep. The natural inclination he thowed' 
to the art of defign caufed him to be placed with the 
painter Giacomo Squarcione, who contracted fuch an af¬ 
fection for him, that he adopted him for his heir. Under 
liis inftruCfions Andrea made fo rapid a progrefs, that at 
feventeen he painted an altar-piece for the church of St. 
Sophia in Padua, which was fo much admired by Giacomo 
Bellini the painter, that he gave him his daughter in mar- 
riage, to,the difpleafure of Squarcione, who had a great 
jealoufy of Bellini. But the cenfure, which now took 
place of the praife he had before lavithed on his pupil, 
only added to his improvement. Certain baffo-relievos 
of the ancient Greek ftyle, pofiefled by the academy in 
which Andrea ftudied, captivated his talle by the correct- 
nefs of their outline, the fimplicity of the forms, the pa- 
rallelifm of the attitudes, and ftriCtnefs of the drapery; 
the dry fervility with which he copied thefe, fuffered him 
not to perceive that he had loft the great prerogative of 
the originals, the foul that animates them. The farcafms 
of Squarcione on his picture of St. Jacopo, made him fen- 
fibje of the necetfity of exprefiion and character ; while the 
friendly advice of the Bellini directed his method, and 
fixed his principles of colour. 
Favoured by fuch advantages, and foftered by the illuf- 
trious patronage of Lodovico Gonzaga marquis of Mantua, 
Andrea Mantegna raifed himfelf from the humble occu¬ 
pation of a fhepherd, to the honour of knighthood ; to that 
of being the inftructorof Correggio; and to the firfl rank 
among the Italian artitts of his time. His chief abode and 
fchool were at Mantua, where he ettablitlied himfelf, with 
bis family ; but he continued to work in other places, and 
particularly at Rome, where the chapel which he had 
painted for Innocent VIII. in the Vatican exifted, though 
injured by age, at the acceffion of Pius VI. The ftyle of 
thofe frefcoes proved that he continued Heady in his at¬ 
tachment to the antique ; but that from a copyift he was 
become an imitator. Of his works in oil, Mantua poflefles 
feveral; but the principal one, the mallerpiece of the ar- 
tift, and the aflemblage of his powers, the picture called 
La Virgine della Victoria, painted for J. F. de Gonzaga, 
marchefe di Mantua, in honour of a victory he gained 
over the French upon the banks of the Taro, and after¬ 
wards placed in the Oratorio de Padri di S. Felippo, is 
now among the fpoils of the Louvre. The Madonna is 
feated on her throne with the infant Handing on her lap, and 
giving benediction to the kneeling marquis in arms before 
her. Atone fide of the throne Hands the archangel Michael, 
holding the mantle of the Madonna; at the other St. 
George, St. Maurice, John the Buptift, and St. Elizabeth 
on her knees. The fide of the throne is ornamented with 
figures relative to the fall of Adam ; the fcene is a leafy 
bower peopled by birds, and here and there open to a 
lucid tky. No known work of Mantegna equals, in de¬ 
fign, the ftyle of this picture: the two infants and St. Eli¬ 
zabeth are figures of dignity ; fo is the archangel, who 
feems to have been the painter’s favourite- object. The 
bead has the beauty and the bloom of youth ; the round 
flefhy neck and the brealt, to where it confines with the 
armour, are treated with great art; the exprefiion is, to a 
high degree, fpirited and charaCteriftic. The countenance 
of the Madonna is mild and benign ; that of Chrift, hu¬ 
mane. The future prophet is announced in the uplifted 
arm of John. The guardian angel kindly contemplates 
the fuppliant, who prays with devout fimplicity. The 
whole has an air of life. All the draperies, efpecially that 
of St. Elizabeth, are elegantly and correCtly folded ; with 
more mafs and lefs interfeClion of furfaces they would be 
perfect. 
Of the remainder of Mantegna’s works, befides fome 
frefcoes of confiderable merit, but much injured, in a fa- 
loon of the caltle of Mantua, little now remains. His 
name is more frequent in galleries and collections than 
his hand; yet he had great influence in the ftyle of his 
E G N A. 
age, nor was the imitation of his ftyle confined to his own 
fchool; Francefco, and another of his fons, finifhed fome 
of the frefcoes which he had begun in the cattle, and ad¬ 
ded the beautiful ceiling, which Ihows that theart of fore- 
fliortening, what the Italians call del /otto in fu, though 
Melozio be its reputed author, was tarried much farther 
by Mantegna and his followers. Fu/eli’s Pilkington. 
Mantegna was alfo the firft engraver of his time, and has 
even been reputed by the Italians the in ventor of that art. 
He engraved his own defigns chiefly on tin plates, -and his 
engravings are not few ; but, confidering the early period 
at which they were performed, are much more extraordi¬ 
nary than numerous. “The Two Labours of Hercules, 
in the Cracherodean collection, of which one has the ini¬ 
tials of Finiguerra, and the other no mark at all, ought., 
I fhould conceive, to be reckoned among the earlieft works 
of Mantegna. Like thofe of Pollajuoli, they are printed 
on reddifh paper; and are in engraving, what Layer- 
Marney towers, and fome other of our earlieft brick build¬ 
ings, are in Englifh architecture; whofe authors had feen 
and endeavoured to avail themfelves of the beauties of 
Greek and Roman edifices, without departing from their 
earlier Gothic education. His Bacchanalian Proceffion 
has ftill fome confiderable remains of Gothic groflnefs ^ 
but he has here fhown his talent in compofition ; and the 
fore-fhortenings that occur are far better exprefled than 
we had hitherto feen. The compofition of his Battle of 
Sea-gods and Tritons, is wildly grand ; with fuch a mix¬ 
ture of the grotefque, as may feem not improperly to be¬ 
long to a fubjeft w hich we fhould elteein out of Nature, 
or beyond the limits of the material world. The comba¬ 
tants in this battle are the offspring of his own fertile and 
vigorous fancy, generated by the fculpture of antiquity: 
befides the tritons and fea-rnonfters, here are the general 
forms of horfes and men, but, like the fauns-and iylvan 
deities of the Greeks, their natures partake of the element 
in which they exift—at leaft, the fpeClator is led to per¬ 
ceive that this intention exifted in the mind of the artiff, 
and that (in the words of Ariel’s fong) they have under¬ 
gone “ a fea-change, into fomething rich and ftrange.” 
Inftead of hair, fea-weed decorates the human heads; and 
the fins and feales of marine animals help to conttitute the 
horfes and tritons. Their weapons too are congenial 
with themfelves ; they fight with fifh and fifh-bones, and 
the fkull of fome unknown inhabitant of the deep ferves 
as a fhield. A more flow and fedate magnificence moves 
his Triumphal Proceffion of Julius Ccefar. The wild ima¬ 
gination which revels in his recedes of the ocean, and his 
bacchanalian proceffions, is nearly excluded from hence; 
it but ferves, in the flaming of the candelabra, to gleam 
through “ the fpoils of nations, and the pomp of wars 
or faintly difeovers itfelf in other fubordinate acceflories- 
as the fringed ornament of ftately grandeur. This Pro- 
ceflion is engraven on nine plates. The original of the 
whole may be feen in the royal collection at Hampton- 
Court Palace. In his Dance of Females, he has fhown fo 
much of the graceful fimplicity and general air of Greek 
fculpture, as to give rife to a belief that it has been copied 
from an antique baflo-relievo; but, till fuch a baflo-relievo 
is fhown, it would be unfair in us to rc-fign fo much of the 
merit of Andrea Mantegna as this compofition may claim. 
Thefe three engravings abundantly demonftrate the wide 
range of his technical and inventive powers ; and (how 
with what fuccefs he could combine, or feparately exhi¬ 
bit, elegance, wildnefs, and grandeur, as occafion admitted 
or required. 
“ There is a very Angular allegorical print attributed to 
Andrea Mantegna, and generally to be found in the col¬ 
lections of his works; but of which the engraving fhould, 
in my opinion, be aferibed to fome inferior hand ; and 
perhaps to that of the goldfmith Finiguerra. That the 
defign is his, I have no doubt. The general fuperior ftyle 
of handling and drawing ; the antique airs of the heads; 
(particularly thofe of Truth, Calumny, Infidioufnefs, and 
Miftruft ;) and the difference in the ftyle of hatching the 
l fliadows 
