Vincenzo Gonzaga (1562-1612)

The exhibition has held at Museo Diocesano from February 18th to June 10th

Vincenzo I Gonzaga - duke of Mantua and Monferrato from 1587 to 1612 - raised Mantua to an international model for its magnificence and splendour. He had relations with the main courts of Europe: his mother was the Emperor's daughter; one of his daughters became Empress; he married Eleonora de' Medici, the dynasty ruling over Florence; the king of France was his brother-in-law; Philip king of Spain knighted him with the exclusive Golden Fleece; his son Ferdinando became a cardinal. Fond of luxury objects, Vincenzo was an unappeasable collector of old and modern paintings and statues, jewels, art-crafts with precious stones and cameos, parade suits of armour.

At his court, working for him, one could meet the main artists of his time, such as the poet Torquato Tasso, the painter Peter Paul Rubens, the architect Antonio Maria Viani, and the musician Claudio Monteverdi, who created the Italian opera. Ambitious leader, he created an order of chivalry, and engaged in three campaigns against the Turkish in Hungary. The exuberant, many-sided personality of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga is widely shown in this exhibition, surprisingly the first ever dedicated to him.