Few artists have managed to imprint their personality so indelibly on posterity as Andrea Mantegna (c. 1430-1506). Before he reached the age of twenty, Mantegna was already being praised for his "alto ingegno" (exalted genius), and he became the court artist for the Gonzaga family in Mantua before he was thirty. Yet, this book argues, Mantegna was not simply a great painter. Together with Donatello, he was the defining genius of the 15th century: the measure of what an artist could be. His highly original and deeply personal vision, the descriptive richness of his pictures, and his biting, hypercritical but always exalted mind gave Mantegna's art an extraordinary edge and earned him a preeminent place in the Renaissance.

Few artists have managed to imprint their personality so indelibly on posterity as Andrea Mantegna (c. 1430–1506). Before he reached the age of twenty, Mantegna was already being praised for his alto ingegno (exalted genius), and he became the court artist for the Gonzaga family in Mantua before he was thirty. Yet, this book argues, Mantegna was not simply a great painter. Together with Donatello, he was the defining genius of the 15th century: the measure of what an artist could be. His highly original and deeply personal vision, the descriptive richness of his pictures, and his biting, hypercritical but always exalted mind gave Mantegna’s art an extraordinary edge and earned him a preeminent place in the Renaissance.

Few artists have managed to imprint their personality so indelibly on posterity as Andrea Mantegna (1430/31-1506). Before he reached the age of twenty, Mantegna was already being praised for his alto ingegno (exalted genius), and he became the court artist for the Gonzaga family in Mantua before he was thirty. Yet, this book argues, Mantegna was not simply agreat painter. Together with Donatello, he was the defining genius of the fifteenth century: the measure of what an artist could be. His highly original and deeply personal vision, the descriptive richness of his pictures, and his biting, hypercritical but always exalted mind gave Mantegna's art an extraordinary edge and earned him a preeminent place in.

Mantegna; humanist, geometrist, archaeologist, of great scholastic and imaginative intelligence, dominated the whole of northern Italy by virtue of his imperious personality. Aiming at optical illusion, he mastered perspective. He trained in painting at the Padua School where Donatello and Paolo Uccello had previously attended. Even at a young age commissions for Andrea’s work flooded in, for example the frescos of the Ovetari Chapel of Padua. In a short space of time Mantegna found his niche as a modernist due to his highly original ideas and the use of perspective in his works. His marriage with Nicolosia Bellini, the sister of Giovanni, paved the way for his entree into Venice. Mantegna reached an artistic maturity with his Pala San Zeno. He remained in Mantova and became the artist for one of the most prestigious courts in Italy – the Court of Gonzaga. Classical art was born. Despite his links with Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, Mantegna refused to adopt their innovative use of colour or leave behind his own technique of engraving.

Excerpt from Andrea Mantegna It is with much diffidence that I have undertaken a work which deals with a Genius so great as Mantegna, a work which I am fully conscious should be attempted only by one far better equipped than myself to comprehend the grandeur of the movement of which he was representative. I regret that the small dimensions of the present series do not allow of an appendix, containing the many documents discovered by the efforts of M. Armand Baschet and the Conte Carlo d'Arco, but to print even the most important only would enlarge the volume too considerably. I wish to express my deep sense of gratitude to Mr Bernhard Berenson for the generous aid he has invariably given. To his personal counsel and to his published works - particularly "The Florentine" and "The Central I alian Painters of the Renaissance" - I owe most, not only of my understanding, but of my enjoyment of fifteenth century Italian art. To the kindness of Dr Gronau, also, I owe much for several important suggestions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Andrea Mantegna: Making Art (History) presents the art of Mantegna as challenging the parameters of the history of art in the demands it makes upon historical interpretation, and explores the artist’s potentially transformative impact on the study of the early Renaissance. Features an array of new methodologies for the study of Mantegna and early Renaissance art Critically addresses the question of iconography and “literary” art, as well as the politics of the monographic exhibition Includes translations of two seminal accounts of the artist by Roberto Longhi and Daniel Arasse, key texts not previously available in English Explores the Mantegna’s potentially transformative impact on the study of the early Renaissance