Mantegna left Squarcione when he was 17, probaly over a row over money, He was now working in Padua in a time in which artists such as Paolo Uccello and Filippo Lippi also worked.

The next inflluence on his work was Jacopo Bellini, father of the painters painters Giovanni and Gentile. In 1453, Mantegna married Bellini's daughter, Nicolosia.

Maybe because of his falling out with the influential Squarcione, he left Padua at an early age. He would spend the rest of his life living and working in Rome, Verona and Mantua.

In 1460, Mantegna was appointed court artist of the Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga of Mantua. He worked here solidly for the best bart of the next two decades and during his time here his son Bernardino died.

He was called by Pope Innocent VIII in 1488 to paint frescos in a chapel Belvedere in the Vatican. His association with the pope lasted until 1500.

He returned to Mantua in 1490. His health was declining but he continued to work. His wife died and he became a father again in his 60s, to a son, Giovanni Andrea. Another son Francesco, was thrown out of court for incurring the marquis' displeasure.

He died in Mantua, on September 13, 1506.

Works Include:

• Altarpiece for the church of Santa Sofia (1449)
• Decoration of the Ovetari Chapel (Group) (1449)
• Two Saints over the entrance porch of the church of Sant'Antonio, Padua (1452)
• The Adoration of the Shepherds (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) (c. 1453)
• Altarpiece of St Luke and other Saints, church of S. Giustina (Brera Gallery, Milan) (1453)
• San Luca Altarpiece (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) (1453)
• Series of frescoes in the chapel of S. Cristoforo, church of Sant'Agostino degli Eremitani (Group)

• St. Sebastian (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) (c. 1457-1459)
• St. Sebastian (Louvre, Paris)
• Crucifixion (Louvre, Paris) (1457-1459)
• Altarpiece for the church of San Zeno Maggiore, Verona (c. 1459)
• Agony in the Garden (National Gallery, London) (c. 1459)
• Portrait of Cardinal Lodovico Trevisano (Staatliche Museen, Berlin) (c. 1459-1469)
• Portrait of a Man (National Gallery of Art, Washington) (c. 1460)
• St. George (Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice) (c. 1460)
• Presentation at the Temple (Staatliche Museen, Berlin) (c. 1460-1466)
• Death of the Virgin (Museo del Prado, Madrid) (c. 1461)
• Madonna with Sleeping Child (Staatliche Museen, Berlin) (c.1465-1470)
• Portrait of Carlo de Medici (Uffizi, Florence) (c. 1467)
• Camera degli Sposi (c. 1474)
• The Madonna of the Cherubim (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) (c. 1485)
• Triumph of Caesar (Hampton Court Palace, UK) (c. 1486)
• Madonna of the Caves (Uffizi, Florence) (1489-1490)
• St. Sebastian (Ca' d'Oro, Venice) (1490)
• The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) (c. 1490)
• Madonna della Vittoria (Louvre, Paris) (1495)
• Judith and Holofernes (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) (1495)
• Holy Family (The Dresden Gallery, Dresden) (c. 1495-1500)
• Parnassus (Mars and Venus) (Louvre, Paris) (1497)
• Minerva Chases the Vices from the Garden of Virtue (Louvre, Paris) (c. 1502)

//Gallery//

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