Was born in 1431 in Isola di Carturo, a small village in the Province of Padua. He came from a very modest family and his father, who could not pay for his studies, put him in the service of the painter Francesco Squarcione. At Squarcione`s workshop he made his first artistic attempts in painting, sculpture and decoration, showing a great talent that soon made him the most outstanding pupil of all. At that workshop he learned to love classical art and to recognize the innovative revolutionary ideas of the Florentine School in etchings, copies and sketches. He stayed with Squarcione for 6 years and then because he wanted some independence, he separated from his teacher and adopted father under an agreement that he signed in 1448. In that same year he painted a triptych for the Church of Saint Sophia in Padua and committed himself to make the paintings of the Ovetari Chapel in the Church of the Augustines.
In this work, the 17-year-old Mantegna worked together with older masters with much more experience such as John of Germany and Antonio Vivarini.
Of a violent and egotistic nature, Mantegna was also impulsive and belligerent.
Squarcione continually criticized his works and put obstacles in his path. Nevertheless, he managed to carry on with his works with great success.
In 1448 he had visited Ferrara in order to paint the important portraits of Lionel del Este and Fulco de Villafora. There he was able to admire the special precision of Rogier van der Weyden.
Once he had finished the frescoes for the Augustines, Mantegna had become a famous painter who was greatly in demand. He came into close contact with the Venetian artistic circles and in 1454 he married.
From 1457-59 he worked on the Altarpiece of Saint Zenon for the church of the same name at Verona and he was invited by the Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga to Mantua to become the Court painter.
In 1460 he moved to that city where he was able to work in a cultural environment and under favorable economic conditions.
During those years he painted the Chapel of the Castle and then later from 1466-67 he went to Florence and to Pisa, where he admired the works of the Tuscan painters. Upon returning to Mantua he decorated the Camera degli Sposi, a work which he probably began in 1471 and almost certainly finished in 1474.
In 1484 he painted a chamber of the Mantua Castle and it is very probable that in 1485 he started to do the cycle on the Triumph of Caesar, which he interrupted from 1488-90, when he went to Rome. Although he was already quite old, he continued to work constantly: from 1495-96 he painted the great altarpiece of the Virgin of Victory for Francisco Gonzaga and from 1496-97 he painted the altarpiece of the church of Santa Maria in Organo de Verona, where today the Sforza castle stands in Milan.
In 1497 he painted a painting on the Parnassus that was destined for the cabinet of Isabel del Este, Juan Francisco`s cultured wife. In 1502, and by then quite old, Mantegna again painted for Isabel, this time “Minerva pursuing the Vices” but did not finish this as he died suddenly on 13 September 1506, when he was still working on the Fable of the How God; this was completed later by Lorenzo Costa.
