Andrea Mantegna

Probable Self Portrait hidden in a detail from La Camera degli Sposi (1467–74) by Andrea Mantegna, in the Palazzo Ducale, Mantova, Italy

Portrait of Andrea Mantegna, Pittore e Cavaliere, by an unknown 17C Italian engraver, Andrea Mantegna, General (Photo by unknown)

The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ (1490) by Andrea Mantegna, in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Andrea Mantegna, General (Photo courtesy of the Pinacoteca di Brera)

The famous trompe l'oeil oculus in the ceiling of the Camera degli Sposi (1467–74) by Andrea Mantegna, in the Palazzo Ducale, Mantova, Andrea Mantegna, General (Photo by unknown)

Parnassus, or Mars and Venus (1496–97) by Andrea Mantegna, in the Louvre, Paris, Andrea Mantegna, General (Photo courtesy of the Louvre)

Christ as the Suffering Redeemer (1490–1500) by Andrea Mantegna, in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Andrea Mantegna, General (Photo courtesy of the Statens Museum for Kunst)

The Madonna of the Cherubim (c. 1485) by Andrea Mantegna, in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Andrea Mantegna, General (Photo courtesy of the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan)

Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (c. 1480) by Andrea Mantegna, in the Louvre, Paris, Andrea Mantegna, General (Photo courtesy of the Louvre)

Italian Renaissance master of perspective

Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) excelled at three of the main tenets of Renaissance art:

He was an early perfector of perspective, which he could warp masterfully.
He was a keen observer of anatomy, which he modeled with sculptural exactitude.
He made careful studies of ancient architecture, the proportions and details of which he incorporated into his paintings.

Mantegna developed a sculptural and very Classical mode of High Renaissance painting quite different from—but just as ethereally beautiful as—that of his famous Venetian brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini, and in 1460 he became court painter to the Gonzagas of Mantova.