Mantua's Ducal Palace acquires important 15th-century sculpture in Paris

New acquisition for the Ducal Palace in Mantua: this is a valuable 15th-century marble sculpture by Pietro Paolo Dalle Masegne. The sculpture depicting St. Francis was part of a monumental burial tomb dedicated to Margherita Malatesta, second wife of Francesco I Gonzaga.

The work was purchased from an antiquarian in Paris: it is a piece of great refinement that testifies to Dalle Masegne’s high artistic quality. It is currently kept in the storerooms of the Ducal Palace; it will be exhibited for the first time on the occasion of the exhibition Dante and the Culture of the Fourteenth Century in Mantua, which will run from October 8, 2021 to January 9, 2022 as part of the celebrations of the seven hundredth anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death.

“Francesco I was ’captain of the people’ of Mantua from 1382 to 1407,” says Ducal Palace director Stefano L’Occaso. “He had three wives: Agnese Visconti was beheaded for adultery in 1391; two years later he married Margherita Malatesta, who died on February 20, 1399; and finally, Anna Visconti, who married in 1404, survived him. When Malatesta died, Gonzaga ordered the construction of an imposing sepulchre: after initial understandings with Jacobello Dalle Masegne, the final agreement was made on April 5, 1400, with Pietro Paolo.”

Under the influence of the Gonzagas Pietro Paolo Delle Masegne in collaboration with his brother Jacobello created the new facade of Mantua Cathedral and the funeral monument of Margherita Malatesta.

Mantua's Ducal Palace acquires important 15th-century sculpture in Paris

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