© Great Works of Western Art
1431 Probable date of birth.
before 1443 Mantegna is adopted by the painter Francesco Squarcione.
1448 He is commissioned to take part in the decoration of the Ovetari chapel in Padua. He is successful in legal action to gain his independence from his adoptive father.
1449 Works briefly in Ferrara.
1453 Marries Nicolosia, the daughter of the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini. He becomes solely responsible for the completion of the Ovetari chapel.
1456 Ludovico Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua invites Mantegna to enter his service but Mantegna is commissioned to paint an altarpiece by the abbot of the St Zeno monastery in Verona.
1460 Mantegna settles permanently in Mantua as court painter to Ludovico.
1466 Visits Florence.
1467 Mantegna is in Pisa.
1478 Ludovico Gonzaga dies. His heir, Federico continues to retain Mantegna at the Mantuan court and to hold him in great esteem.
1483 Lorenzo de Medici, the Magnificent, calls on Mantegna in order to express his admiration for the painter’s work.
1484 Federico Gonzaga dies and is succeeded by his son Francesco.
1488 Mantegna is in Rome working for Pope Innocent VIII on the decoration of a papal chapel in the Vatican.
1490 Returns to Mantua.
1492 Francesco Gonzaga transfers ownership of some woodland to Mantegna in payment for the Triumph of Caesar series and the decoration in the Camera degli Sposi.
1504 Mantegna makes a will in which he leaves a great deal of money for the decoration of his personal memorial chapel in Mantua.
1506 Mantegna dies on 13 September in Mantua.
1453 Adoration of the Shepherds, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
c1455 Presentation in the Temple, Berlin, Staatliche Museen
1456–69 Crucifixion, Paris, Musée du Louvre
1460 Agony in the Garden, London, National Gallery
1460 San Zeno Alterpiece, Verona, San Zeno
c1460 St Sebastian, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
1461 Death of the Virgin, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado
1465–74 Camera degli Sposi, Mantua, Palazzo Ducale
c1480 St Sebastian, Paris, Musée du Louvre
1485 Madonna of the Cherubim, Milan, Pinacoteca Brera
1495 Madonna of Victory, Paris, Musée du Louvre
1497 Mars and Venus (Parnassus), Paris, Musée du Louvre
1490s The Holy Family with St John the Baptist, London, National Gallery
c1500 Dead Christ, Milan, Pinacoteca Brera
c1500 *The Triumphs of Caesar *, Hampton Court, Surrey, Royal Collection
1495–1500 The Holy Family, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
c1502 Minerva Chases the Vices from the Garden of Virtue, Paris, Musée du Louvre
