Few artists have managed to imprint their personality so indelibly on posterity as Andrea Mantegna (c. 1430-1506). Before he reached the age of twenty, Mantegna was already being praised for his "alto ingegno" (exalted genius), and he became the court artist for the Gonzaga family in Mantua before he was thirty. Yet, this book argues, Mantegna was not simply a great painter. Together with Donatello, he was the defining genius of the 15th century: the measure of what an artist could be. His highly original and deeply personal vision, the descriptive richness of his pictures, and his biting, hypercritical but always exalted mind gave Mantegna's art an extraordinary edge and earned him a preeminent place in the Renaissance.

Few artists have managed to imprint their personality so indelibly on posterity as Andrea Mantegna (c. 1430–1506). Before he reached the age of twenty, Mantegna was already being praised for his alto ingegno (exalted genius), and he became the court artist for the Gonzaga family in Mantua before he was thirty. Yet, this book argues, Mantegna was not simply a great painter. Together with Donatello, he was the defining genius of the 15th century: the measure of what an artist could be. His highly original and deeply personal vision, the descriptive richness of his pictures, and his biting, hypercritical but always exalted mind gave Mantegna’s art an extraordinary edge and earned him a preeminent place in the Renaissance.

Andrea Mantegna: Making Art (History) presents the art of Mantegna as challenging the parameters of the history of art in the demands it makes upon historical interpretation, and explores the artist’s potentially transformative impact on the study of the early Renaissance. Features an array of new methodologies for the study of Mantegna and early Renaissance art Critically addresses the question of iconography and “literary” art, as well as the politics of the monographic exhibition Includes translations of two seminal accounts of the artist by Roberto Longhi and Daniel Arasse, key texts not previously available in English Explores the Mantegna’s potentially transformative impact on the study of the early Renaissance

Few artists have managed to imprint their personality so indelibly on posterity as Andrea Mantegna (1430/31-1506). Before he reached the age of twenty, Mantegna was already being praised for his alto ingegno (exalted genius), and he became the court artist for the Gonzaga family in Mantua before he was thirty. Yet, this book argues, Mantegna was not simply agreat painter. Together with Donatello, he was the defining genius of the fifteenth century: the measure of what an artist could be. His highly original and deeply personal vision, the descriptive richness of his pictures, and his biting, hypercritical but always exalted mind gave Mantegna's art an extraordinary edge and earned him a preeminent place in.