Portrait of Francesco Gonzaga

Mantegna had just arrived at the court of Mantua, in 1460, as painter to the Gonzaga family, and one of his first tasks was this small portrait of their son Francesco. The boy had reason to be painted: at 17 he had just been made a cardinal by Pope Pius the Second, a reward for the Gonzaga hosting a great church council in Mantua the year before. Mantegna shows him in strict profile, in red cardinal's robes, the way emperors appear on ancient Roman coins. Mantua was steeped in the study of antiquity, and a teenage churchman is given the bearing of a Caesar on a medal. The panel itself is tiny, barely 25 centimetres tall, close to the size of the coins it imitates.