Palazzo Ducale | Sala dei Fiumi
The Sala dei Fiumi was designed in 1579 at the behest of Guglielmo Gonzaga and looked out like a closed loggia on the hanging garden, 12 meters higher than Piazza Sordello. The current appearance of the Galleria dei Fiumi is mainly due to interventions carried out between 1773 and 1775. The pictorial decorations on the walls and on the vault were in fact made when the Corte Vecchia of the Doge’s Palace was used as an official residence of the Austrian government.
In 1773 the theatrical painter Gaetano Crevola began to paint the architectural-decorative framework in the shape of a pergola, while the realization of the figures of the Rivers on the walls and the decoration of the vault were entrusted to one of the most appreciated artists of the time, the Veronese Giorgio Anselmi who in the years immediately following also painted the dome of the Basilica of Sant’Andrea.
On the walls Anselmi portrayed the personifications of the rivers of the Mantua area (Po, Oglio, Chiese, Mincio, Secchia), on the vault he created the mythological theme of Phaeton asking his father Apollo for the chariot of the Sun. The figures of the Hours and Saturn are arranged around the central episode, portrayed from behind and with a glimpse from below, iconographic references to the passage of time.
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