Tapestries for the courts of Federico II, Ercole, and Ferrante Gonzaga, 1522-63

by Clifford M. Brown

Tapestries were among the most costly works produced during the Renaissance. In the sixteenth century, workshops in northern Europe and in Italy wove intricate and beautiful tapestries that were acquired by the nobility as reflections of their wealth and prestige. The Gonzaga family of Mantua and Guastalla had one of the most splendid collections of these wall hangings, rivaled perhaps only by the papal collection and that of the Medicis. Clifford M. Brown has exhaustively researched archival material in Mantua and Parma in order to document the tapestries commissioned for or purchased by the sons of Francesco II Gonzaga and Isabella d'Este. In addition to archival documentation (the transcriptions of which have been checked by Anna Maria Lorenzoni), Guy Delmarcel has provided stylistic and iconographic analyses of the surviving tapestries, fifty-two of which have been discovered in collections in Italy, Belgium, France, Portugal, and Great Britain. All of the known Gonzaga tapestries