Palazzo Te
This glorious Renaissance summer palace, designed by Giulio Romano between 1525 and 1535, was built for Federico II Gonzaga, the sybaritic son of Isabella d’Este. As his retreat from court life, it was designed to indulge his obsessions. A series of lavishly adorned apartments, decorated by the best artists of the day, reveal Gonzaga’s enthusiasms for love and sex, astrology, and horses, from the almost 3-D effect in the Hall of the Horses to erotic frescoes by Romano in the elaborate Chamber of Amor and Psyche. The greatest room in the palace, however, is a metaphor for Gonzaga power: In the Sala dei Giganti (Room of the Giants), Titan is overthrown by the gods in a dizzying display of trompe l’oeil painting that surrounds the viewer on all sides (and overhead!). The Palazzo Te is also home to the Museo Civico, whose collections include the Gonzaga family’s coins, medallions, 20th-century portraits by Armando Spadini, and a few Egyptian artifacts.
This glorious Renaissance summer palace, designed by Giulio Romano between 1525 and 1535, was built for Federico II Gonzaga, the sybaritic son of Isabella d’Este. As his retreat from court life, it was designed to indulge his obsessions. A series of lavishly adorned apartments, decorated by the best artists of the day, reveal Gonzaga’s enthusiasms for love and sex, astrology, and horses, from the almost 3-D effect in the Hall of the Horses to erotic frescoes by Romano in the elaborate Chamber of Amor and Psyche. The greatest room in the palace, however, is a metaphor for Gonzaga power: In the Sala dei Giganti (Room of the Giants), Titan is overthrown by the gods in a dizzying display of trompe l’oeil painting that surrounds the viewer on all sides (and overhead!). The Palazzo Te is also home to the Museo Civico, whose collections include the Gonzaga family’s coins, medallions, 20th-century portraits by Armando Spadini, and a few Egyptian artifacts.
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