Titian, Giulio Romano, and the Legacy of the Caesars Reconstructing Federico II Gonzaga’s Camerino dei Cesari at the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua

The research presented in this thesis provides fresh insights into the richness and complexity of Titian and Giulio Romano’s work for one of the major decorative cycles of the Italian renaissance, the Camerino dei Cesari at the Ducal Palace in Mantua (1536-1540). The thesis will begin by exploring the artistic tradition of depictions of uomini illustri as a genre and how this was developed into a propaganda tool in the North Italian courts. The research explores previously undeveloped links, and parallels, between the Camerino and Mantegna’s anticipatory monument to Gonzaga immortality, the Camera degli Sposi (1465 -1474). The political context of this major commission is then considered from the point of view of all the key players: Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua; the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V; Titian; and Giulio Romano. Attention will then turn to new and comprehensive digital reconstructions of the Camerino’s lost decorative scheme. These have been developed to a new standard of accuracy, drawing on visual material and actual paintings from the visual scheme previously thought lost, but rediscovered by the author. These include an equestrian painting of Julius Caesar in a private collection in England and an album of sixteenth-century drawings after Titian’s eleven portraits of the Caesars by their first and prolific copyist, Bernardino Campi. These reconstructions, and a close examination of Andreasi’s drawings, have revealed previously unseen details which suggest new interpretations of the scheme’s iconography within the context of the wealth and political ambitions of the Gonzaga family. The research also sheds new light on the source material available to the artists and how this was applied in the development of the decorative scheme. The context of how this material was interpreted and understood in the sixteenth century is considered. The thesis also considers the heritage of these works as part of a more general appraisal of the Camerino’s significant artistic legacy: Titian’s portrayals of the Caesars for the Camerino constitute some of the most copied and imitated paintings in European art of the early modern period.