Andrea Mantegna

Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance known for his sculptural figures and daring sense of perspective. Born near Padua around 1431, he was fascinated by ancient Rome, and his figures often look as solid and monumental as carved stone. He pushed the new science of perspective to bold extremes, most famously in a painting of the dead Christ seen dramatically foreshortened from the feet.

He spent much of his career serving the ruling family of Mantua, where he decorated a room with lifelike portraits and an astonishing painted ceiling that seems to open to the sky. His crisp, precise style influenced many artists who followed. Mantegna is remembered as one of the great innovators of northern Italian Renaissance painting.