Giulio Romano's Chamber of the Giants
On the edge of Mantua, on what was once an island in the lakes, Palazzo Te is the masterpiece of Giulio Romano, the favourite pupil of Raphael, who designed and decorated it between 1524 and 1534 for Federico II Gonzaga. It was a suburban villa dedicated to leisure, parties and love: here the duke received guests, including Emperor Charles V, and met his mistress Isabella Boschetti.
The palace, a masterpiece of Mannerism, plays with the rules of classical architecture, with triglyphs that seem to slip and fall. Inside, the rooms are frescoed with mythological scenes: the Room of Cupid and Psyche, with its sensual banquet scenes, and the Room of the Horses, with life-size portraits of the Gonzaga's favourite horses. The most astonishing is the Chamber of the Giants (Camera dei Giganti): the walls and vault are painted without interruption to show Jupiter hurling thunderbolts at the giants who tried to climb Olympus, with the giants crushed under collapsing columns and rocks; the visitor feels engulfed by the catastrophe, an effect once amplified by the echo of the room.
Tip: the palace also hosts important temporary exhibitions; the garden with the Grotto and the Esedra is pleasant to walk in.
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