Trascrizione
This painting by Domenico Morone is dated 1494 and depicts the Expulsion of the Bonacolsi, which refers to the action that allowed the Gonzagas to take power on 16 August 1328. The artwork is an unique opportunity to get an idea of how Piazza Sordello must have looked to the Renaissance eye.
In the background, at the centre, we see the cathedral of San Pietro. The façade in Mantua today is an eighteenth-century reconstruction. This painting shows the late Gothic version produced in about 1400 by brothers Jacobello and Pietro Paolo Dalle Masegne.
On the right, the imposing crenellated Palazzo del Capitano, followed by the façade of the Magna Domus, two buildings probably founded by the Bonacolsi family, ruler of Mantua from 1272 to 1328.
It was precisely the battle depicted in the foreground of the painting that defined the handover of power: Rinaldo Bonacolsi, known as Passerino, is the knight on the right seeking refuge in Palazzo del Capitano. The soldiers led by Luigi Gonzaga are in the background around the procession chanting the Te Deum upon entering the cathedral to celebrate victory. The painting thus illustrates the sequence of events as a single narrative.
At the end of the tour, visitors should pause to look at the façade of Palazzo del Capitano on Piazza Sordello. You will notice many similarities with the original because this painting was actually used as a model when, at the end of the nineteenth century, it was decided to restore the palace to its Medieval appearance.