View source for Palazzo del Te

{{Short description|Palace in Mantua, Italy completed in 1534}}
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{{no footnotes|date=February 2018}}
{{one source|date=November 2023}}
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{{use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox Historic building
|name                   = {{lang|it|Palazzo del Te|i=no}}
|alternate_names        = {{lang|it|Palazzo Te|i=no}}
|image                  = Palazzo Te Mantova 4.jpg
|caption                = 
|map_type               = 
|coordinates            = {{coord|45.14737|N|10.78728|E|display=inline,title}}
|location_town          = [[Mantua]]
|location_country       = [[Italy]]
|architect              = [[Giulio Romano (painter)|Giulio Romano]]
|client                 = [[Federico II Gonzaga]]
|engineer               =
|construction_start_date= 1524
|completion_date        = 1534
|date_demolished        =
|cost                   =
|structural_system      =
|style                  = [[Mannerism#Mannerist architecture|Mannerist]]
|size                   =
|website                = {{website|http://www.centropalazzote.it/}}
}}
'''{{lang|it|Palazzo del Te|i=no}}''' ({{IPA|it|paˈlattso del ˈte}}),<ref name="DOP">{{DOP|id=1088972|lemma=Te, il}}</ref> or simply '''{{lang|it|Palazzo Te|i=no}}''', is a palace in the suburbs of [[Mantua]], Italy. It is an example of the [[mannerism|mannerist]] style of [[architecture]], and the acknowledged masterpiece of [[Giulio Romano (painter)|Giulio Romano]].

== Name ==
The palace is mostly referred to by English-speaking writers, especially art historians, as {{lang|it|Palazzo del Te}}. In Italian, the name is now commonly shortened to {{lang|it|Palazzo Te}}.

It was originally named after {{lang|it|Il Te|i=no}}, the suburb where it was built.<ref name="DOP"/><ref name="Vasari">{{cite book|last=Vasari|first=Giorgio|author-link=Giorgio Vasari|title=[[The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects]]|year=1568|chapter=Vita di Giulio Romano, Pittore|language=it|quote=[...] sua eccellenza aveva un luogo e certe stalle, chiamato il T, in mezzo a una prateria"; "Ma tornando alle stanze del T [...]"; "Parimente a Marmiruolo, luogo lontano da Mantova cinque miglia, fu fatta con ordine e disegno di Giulio una comodissima fabbrica e grandi pitture, non men belle che quelle del castello e del palazzo del T.}}</ref> The toponym is most likely derived from [[Lombard language|Lombard]] {{lang|lmo|tejee}} or {{lang|lmo|tejé}}, referring to a "linden grove" that once grew in the area, or alternatively from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|[[wikt:attegia|attegia]]}} "hut".<ref name="name">{{cite web|url=https://www.centropalazzote.it/il-luogo-e-il-nome/|title=Il luogo e il nome|language=it|work=Palazzo Te|date=20 May 2020 |access-date=2023-11-09}}</ref> Art historian [[Giorgio Vasari]] spelled the name {{lang|it|Palazzo del T}}, based on the now archaic Italian-language name of the letter T.<ref name="Vasari"/>

== History ==
{{lang|it|Palazzo del Te|i=no}} was constructed 1524&ndash;34 for [[Federico II Gonzaga]], Marquess of Mantua, as a palace of leisure. The site chosen was that of the family stables which he had built at {{lang|it|Isola del Te|i=no}}, on the edge of the [[marsh]]es just outside Mantua's city walls, as early as in 1502.<ref name="name"/>

[[Giulio Romano (painter)|Giulio Romano]], a pupil of [[Raphael]], was commissioned to design the building. The shell of the palazzo, erected within eighteen months, is basically a square house containing a [[cloister]]ed courtyard. A formal garden complemented the house, enclosed by colonnaded outbuildings ending in a semicircular colonnade known as the [[Exedra]] or {{lang|it|Esedra}}.

Once the shell of the building was completed, for ten years a team of plasterers, carvers, and fresco painters laboured until barely a surface in any of the loggias or salons remained undecorated. Under Romano's direction, local decorative painters such as [[Benedetto Pagni]] and [[Rinaldo Mantovano]] worked extensively on the frescos.

In July 1630, during the [[War of the Mantuan Succession]] (1628–31), [[Mantua#History|Mantua]] and the palace were sacked over three days by an [[Holy Roman Empire|Imperial]] army of 36,000 [[Landsknecht]] mercenaries. The remaining populace fell victim to one of the worst [[Bubonic plague|plague]]s in history that the invaders had brought with them. The Palazzo was looted from top to bottom and remained an empty shell with nymphs, gods, goddesses, and giants adorning the walls of the empty, echoing rooms.

== Description ==
[[Image:Ceiling of the Room of the giants in Palazzo Te, Mantua.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Mannerism]]'s most famous fresco: Giulio Romano's illusionism invents a dome overhead and dissolves the room's architecture in the ''Fall of the Giants''.]]
[[File:Palazzo Te in Mantua 2008 Touring Club Italiano GR Lombardia@0810.tif|thumb|Plan of Palazzo Te, Mantua. Scale 0:10 m. (A) Courtyard of Honour, (B) Garden, (C) Exedra, (D) Orchard, (E) Secret Garden; (1) Room of Ovid, (2) Room of the Emblems, (3) Room of the Sun, (4) Loggia of the Muses, (59 Hall of the Horses, (6) Room of Psyche, (7) Room of the Winds, (8) Room of the Eagles, (9) Loggia of David, (10) Room of the Stucco, (11) Room of Caesar, (12) Room of the Giants, (13) Vestibule, (14) Room of Attilio Regolo, (15) Loggia, (16) Grotto. In Guida Rossa Lombardia Touring Club Italiano]]

Like the [[Villa Farnesina]] in [[Rome]], the suburban location allowed for a mixing of both palace and [[villa]] architecture. The four exterior façades have flat pilasters against [[rustication (architecture)|rusticated]] walls, the [[Fenestration (architecture)|fenestration]] indicating that the {{lang|it|[[piano nobile]]}} is the ground floor, with a secondary floor above.  The East façade differs from the other three by having [[Palladian]] motifs on its pilaster and an open [[loggia]] at its centre rather than an arch to the courtyard. The facades are not so symmetrical as they appear and the spans between the columns are irregular. The centers of the North and South facades are pierced by two-storey arches without portico or pediment, simply a covered way leading to the interior courtyard.

Few windows overlook the inner courtyard ("{{lang|it|cortile}}"); the colonnaded walls are decorated on all sides by deep niches and blind windows, and the intervening surfaces are spattered by {{lang|it|spezzato}} (broken and blemished plaster) giving life and depth to the surfaces.

[[File:Palazzo Te - Veduta del giardino interno.jpg|thumb|left|Archway to the semicircular colonnade]]

The frescoes are the most remarkable feature of the Palazzo.  The subjects range from [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian]] [[banquet]]s in the {{lang|it|Sala di Psiche}} ("Hall of [[Psyche (mythology)|Psyche]]") and stylised [[horse]]s in the {{lang|it|Sala dei Cavalli}} ("Hall of the Horses") to the most unusual of all — [[giant (mythology)|giants]] and [[grotesque]]s wreaking havoc, fury, and ruin around the walls of the {{lang|it|Sala dei Giganti}} ("Hall of the Giants").
These magnificent rooms, once furnished to complement the ducal court of the [[House of Gonzaga|Gonzaga]] family, saw many of the most illustrious figures of their era entertained, such as the [[Emperor Charles V]], who, when visiting in 1530, elevated his host Federico II of Gonzaga from Marquess to Duke of Mantua.

One of the most evocative parts of the lost era of the palazzo is the {{lang|it|Casino della Grotta}} ("Lodge of the Grotto"), a small suite of intimate rooms arranged around a [[grotto]] and {{lang|it|loggetta}} (covered balcony) where [[courtier]]s once bathed in the small [[waterfall#Types|cascade]] that splashed over the [[pebble]]s and [[Exoskeleton|shells]] encrusted in the floor and walls.

Part of the Palazzo today houses the '''{{lang|it|Museo Civico del Palazzo Te|i=no}}''' (Civic Museum of Palazzo del Te), endowed by the publisher [[Arnoldo Mondadori]]. It contains a collection of [[Mesopotamian]] art.{{clear}}

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Image:Modellino in legno di Palazzo Te in Palazzo Te - Mantova (II).jpg|Model 
Image:Modellino in legno di Palazzo Te in Palazzo Te - Mantova.jpg|Model
Image:39PalazzoTe.jpg|Loggia
Image:Palazzo Te Mantova 3.jpg|Internal façade
Image:Palazzo te giardino segreto.jpg|Casino della Grotta
Image:Palazzo Te Mantova 2.jpg|"[[Palladian window|Serlian window]]" archway
Image:Palazzo Te Mantova 1.jpg|{{lang|it|Cortile}} featuring "dropped" [[triglyph|triglyphs]]
File:Gigants1.jpg|The Fall of the Giants ({{lang|it|La Caduta dei Giganti}})
File:Sala dei Cavalli.jpg|Hall of Horses ({{lang|it|Salla dei Cavalli}})
File:Quadrato centrale e 4 semiottagoni.png|Quadrato
File:Palazzo te, camerino di venere, con grottesche e toeletta di venere di girolamo da pontremoli, 1534.jpg
File:Palazzo te, camerino delle grottesche, di andrea de conti e luca da faenza, 1533, 01.jpg
</gallery>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Sources ===
* {{cite book|author-link=John Summerson|last=Summerson|first=John|title=[[The Classical Language of Architecture]]|year=1980|publisher=[[Thames and Hudson]]|series=World of Art|isbn=0500201773}}

== External links ==
{{commonscat|Palazzo Te (Mantua)}}
* {{Official website|http://www.centropalazzote.it/}}
* [http://guideturistichemantova.it/English/ Mantua tourist guide]
* [https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/palazzo-te Palazzo Te] at Google Arts & Culture

{{Giulio Romano}}
{{Landmarks of Lombardy}}

{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palazzo Del Te}}
[[Category:Giulio Romano buildings]]
[[Category:Houses completed in 1534]]
[[Category:Palaces in Mantua|Te]]
[[Category:Renaissance architecture in Mantua]]
[[Category:Fresco paintings in Mantua]]
[[Category:Mannerist architecture in Italy]]
[[Category:Historic house museums in Italy]]
[[Category:Egyptological collections in Italy]]
[[Category:Numismatic museums in Italy]]
[[Category:Art museums and galleries in Lombardy]]
[[Category:1534 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Museums in Mantua]]
[[Category:Gonzaga residences]]
[[Category:Loggias in Italy]]