The Duke's Palace of Mantua

 

Ever since arriving in Italy, there has been no shortage of ornate beautiful sights around every corner. Everything is adorned with gold or a kaleidoscope of color. The Duke’s palace of Mantua was no exception to this. With their own lavish display including tapestries that were two times my height, walls painted with frescos, and expansive courtyards that showcased the Gonzaga family’s prized horse collection there was much to look at. The tour went by quickly and I felt like I could have easily spent a full day at the palace. 

In an article we read in preparation for class, we learned about Frederico Gonzaga. This duke was a big spender and was very concerned with money. This was quite apparent on our tour where we only saw a fraction of the 460 rooms that could be found in this palace. Each is filled with its own beautiful art. Art in this palace like the frescas on the wall served as a tangible representation of wealth and power. For the Gonzaga’s, this art was a tool for projecting the Duke's affluence and social status. 

One of my favorite rooms we visited was the bridal chambers. There was a fresco painting that covered the entire

surface of the walls and the ceilings in this room. It was quite grand. In the map that was handed out, it says

that this room was commissioned by Ludovico Gonzaga and includes a dominant painting of him and his wife.

I saw his wife and wondered if despite living amidst all of this luxury, whether or not she was still bound by harsh

female societal expectations that we have been learning about since Venice.

While walking the actual history of the Gonzagas we were reading the comedy The Stablemaster Il Marescalco) by

Pietro Aretino. This play was based on Federico II Gonzaga and there were many themes we noted throughout the

play that could be applied to this site visit. For example, while there were so many riches in these embellished walls

we cannot forget to think about the role of the wives and the Gonzaga women at the time. While they were able to live amongst the riches, they were still constrained to the societal expectations of the time. In The Stablemaster, the dialogue made it clear that women were to take care of the men’s every need. They were seen as complainers and grumbling/nagging if they didn't do as they were told. They were also seen as a

burden to men who would rather do anything than take care of a wife. Women had to wear makeup otherwise they were deemed too ugly. They were expected to do anything that was asked of them. Because this play was written as a comedy, it is interesting to think about the fact that it was common to find jokes like this funny at the time. It was the norm for women to be treated like this and I imagine that this type of talk would have been made constantly throughout the palace we toured.

I imagine that the luxuries in the Duke’s palace like the courtyard pictured above were not as accessible to the women of the time and I am sure they were constrained to these same expectations that were shown in the play. Walking amongst the luxury of the Duke’s palace allowed me to picture some of these themes more vividly and clearly. 

While in Orvieto, we visited an oil mill run by 4 generations of women. We saw the hard work and time it took to pick and process the olives as well as sell and market their oil. After spending so much time talking about the wealthy elite this was a much different experience. These women had worked hard their whole lives and despite facing the repercussions of climate change have continued to prosper. To me, this shows a gender difference that could be as a result of different social classes. I admired how these 4 generations worked hard together. While I am sure they had to conform to many different gendered societal expectations, I can imagine it is much different than the expectations we learned about the Gonzaga's from reading The Stablemaster. I would be curious to investigate this more.

I look forward to the continuation of our site visits and I will be excited to learn about how this theme applies to many other sites around Italy. I am having so much fun and it has only been one week. I cannot believe we get to do it two more times!! 

 ~ Lydia