Architectural oddities include "jokes" such as purposely incorrect
doorway lintels.
The "Palazzo di Té" is located at Mantua, and the Venetto
is well known for its architectural achievements! These doorway
lintels were not errors! That these dropped triglyph lintels are
not errors of oversight is further confirmed by the purposely
over-large, roughly hewn, rusticated keystones that push upward
and force apart the pitches of the
window (or doorway) canopies. In addition, other "errors" were
carefully designed, such as ceilings and walls with fine surfaces,
contrasted with purposely rusticated
columns in contrast.
.
Architectural oddities included "jokes" such as purposely misplaced
doors opening onto gardens. Thus
doors without stairs to access the gardens they open into, and
without paths to walk in the gardens were not errors! Windows of
differing sizes, as if they were errors in planning, etc.
Sexually-Oriented Art
It ought not to escape any interested person that Italy is closely
related to Christianity. Views concerning public expressions of
sexuality were strictly enforced during the central period of the
Holy Inquisition, yet the Venetto seems to be so far away.
.
In one of the main rooms, the
"Camera del Sole e della Luna",
one can look up into a dome. The art above in the dome implies that Roman
charioteers were a bunch of asses.
.
The sexuality seen is effectively
explicitely pornographic, yet it is
clearly also art. The central figure in this painting has a white "seminal"
fluid flowing from his penis.
.
There are two major sexual themes in this fresco. The feminine figure at
the lower left is pouring a fluid from two
jars,
suggestive perhaps of unused vaginal secretions. The central figure, to
the right and above the woman with the jars, is a man holding the neck
of a swan next to his legs. The "swan's neck" was symbolic of homosexuality.
.
There is a "Secret Garden", with an entrance portal that is strongly
suggestive of a woman's vagina.
.
The Grotesque
A long extinguished "race" of "giants" depicts
grotesque figures, but so artistically
executed! Such "unreal" grotesques also violated Christan church laws.
.
Ceramics
Great art often takes on a life of its own, is emulated and elaborated by admirers.
Thus it has been said that the art found in the "Camera del Sole e della Luna"
greatly influenced the Staffordshire ceramics of Josiah Wedgwood.
A glance at the "Camera del Sole e della Luna is sufficient.
Patron of the Arts
The house of Gonzaga was founded by Federrico II Gonzaga, Marquis, then Duke of Mantua
in 1524-1534. The Gonzagas were patrons of arts, employing many famous artists, as well
as musicians. Monteverde was one of those muscicians whose music Esther Lederberg and
her second husband enjoyed very much.
1
"The originality of the design, which lends itself to a wide variety
of interpretations, has at times been seen as caprice, as transgression
or playful discord, or even as irony or self-mockery."
(Carpeggiani, Tellini Perina, 1987, Tafuri, 1989, Palazzo Te in Mantua,
Electa, 1994, Milano, p. 26)
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