List of artworks in the Gonzaga collection


The Gonzaga Collection or Celeste Gallery was the large collection of artworks commissioned and acquired by the House of Gonzaga in Mantua, Italy, exhibited for a time in the Palazzo Ducale, the Palazzo Te, the Palazzo San Sebastiano and other buildings in Mantua and elsewhere.
The Gonzagas were inspired by the wunderkammer style of collecting practised by the princes of Bavaria, with Isabella d'Este in particular creating a noted private 'studiolo'. They set an example for other European courts, particularly in their patronage of contemporary artists, whilst their collecting increased the international profile of Mantua, a relatively small state. It reached its peak under Vincenzo I Gonzaga and his son Ferdinando, before the family's decline led to major losses from the collection, such as the long negotiations from 1625 onwards with Charles I of Great Britain, mediated by two members of the Whitehall Group – the Flemish art dealer Daniel Nys and Nicholas Lanier, Master of the King's Music. These culminated in 1627 with most of the Gonzaga collections being sent to London. This ensured their preservation, unlike the artworks still in Mantua when the city was sacked in 1630.
Its works are now split between museums and private collections across the world, as shown by the 2002–2003 exhibition Gonzaga. La Celeste Galeria. Il Museo dei Duchi di Mantova at the Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale, which included around ninety paintings from the total of approximately 2,000 originally in the collection. As well as paintings, the collection also included decorative work in gold and precious stones such as the Gonzaga Cameo along with natural history specimens or 'mirabilia'.

List

A

;Anonymous
;Cristofano Allori
;Sofonisba Anguissola
  • Bernardino Campi painting a portrait of Sofonisba Angiussola,, oil on canvas, 111×109.5 cm, Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale
  • Self portrait at the easel, Lancut, Muzeum Zamet

B

;Giovanni Baglione
  • Allegory of Justice and Peace, oil on canvas, 255.3×227 cm, Royal Collection
  • Apollo, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Calliope, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Clio, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Erato, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Euterpe, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Polymnia, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Terpsichore, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Thalia, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
  • Urania, oil on canvas, 195×150 cm, Arras, Musée des Beaux-Arts
;Jacopo Bassano
;Pieter Bruegel the Younger

C

;Annibale Carracci
;Ludovico Carracci
  • Ecstacy of St Francis, oil on panel, 67×51 cm, Parma, private collection
;Correggio
;Lorenzo Costa
;Lucas Cranach

D

;Domenichino
  • Rinaldo and Armida, oil on canvas, 121×167 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre
  • Sant'Agnese, oil on canvas, 212.7×152.4 cm, Royal Collection
;Ludovico Dondi
  • Julius Caesar in his triumphal chariot, oil on copper, 19.5×18.5 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
  • Men carrying booty and trophies of royal armour, oil on copper, 18.5×10 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
  • Men carrying booty, trumpeters and sacrificial bulls, oil on copper, 19.5×16.5 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
  • Prisoners and standard bearers, oil on copper, 19.5×19 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
  • Trophies, war machines, inscriptions and representations of defeated cities, oil on copper, 20×18 cm, Munich, Alte Pinakothek

F

;Domenico Fetti
  • Christ in the Garden, oil on canvas, 90.5×55.5 Prague, National Gallery
  • Elijah Triumphing over the Prophets of Baal, oil on panel, 61.2×70.5, Royal Collection
  • Sage-seed greenhouse, oil on panel, 60.8×44.5, Prague, Castle Gallery
  • Margherita Gonzaga receiving the model of the Church of S.Orsola, 1619–1623, oil on canvas, 245×276 cm, Mantua, Museo del Palazzo Ducale
  • Portrait of an astronomer, oil on canvas, 98×73.5, Dresden, Gemaldegalerie
  • Posthumous portrait of Federico II Gonzaga, I Duke of Mantua, oil on canvas, 99×88, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemaeldegaleire
  • Vision of St Peter, oil on panel, 66×51, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
  • The Penitent Magdalene, 1617–21, oil on canvas, 98×78.5 cm, Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphilj
;Lavinia Fontana

G

;Lorenzo Garbieri
;Garofalo
;Guercino

L

;Lorenzo Lotto

M

;Andrea Mantegna
;Michelangelo
;Domenico Morone

P

;Pietro Perugino
;Frans Pourbus the Younger

R

;Guido Reni
  • The Labours of Hercules, 1617–1621, a series of four canvases commissioned by [Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua|Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga], Paris, Musée du Louvre:
  • *Hercules on fire
  • *Hercules and Archelaus
  • *Hercules and the Hydra
  • *Nessus raping Deianira
;Guido Reni
;Giulio Romano
;;Workshop of Giulio Romano
  • Fortune, 1520–1546, oil on canvas, 96.2×49.8 cm, Royal Collection
  • Jupiter and Juno taking possession of the throne of Paradise, 1530, oil on canvas, 111×135.5 cm, Royal Collection
  • The Theatre of the Caesars: Nero plays while Rome burns, 1536–1539, oil on canvas, 121.5 x 106.7 cm, Royal Collection
;Pieter Paul Rubens

T

;Domenico Tintoretto
  • Tancred baptising Clorinda,, oil on canvas, 168×115 cm, Houston, Museum of Fine Arts
  • Mary Magdalene, Rome, Pinacoteca Capitolina
;Jacopo Tintoretto
;Titian

V

;Various artists
;Veronese
  • Judith with the Head of Holofernes, oil on canvas, 111×110 cm, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
;Antonio Maria Viani
  • Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, oil on canvas, 54.5×42.5 cm, Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale