Mantua, Ducal Palace, Gallery of the Months:
the Sixth Northern Span

The sixth span (starting from the east) follows the architectural and decorative model designed by Giulio Romano in the original part of the gallery (eastern half). A hint of a pilaster on the left and a complete pilaster on the right, set on a high pedestal painted with imitation marble and equipped with a Corinthian capital in white and golden stucco and decorated on the front with a motif of lake reeds, delimit the space within which a double arch develops. In the centre of the span there is a niche with a background painted with fake marble and a shell-shaped basin, containing an ancient sculpture recently placed here. The statue of a female figure, headless and without upper limbs, rests on a high pedestal. The stucco cornice located approximately two-thirds of the height of the span divides the field into two sectors. In the upper part there is the arch framing the basin of the niche, flanked by two winged stucco figures in high relief, identifiable as geniuses, who hold medallions with the zodiac symbols of Aries (on the left) and Taurus (on the right). The top of the arch is adorned with a stucco relief roundel probably depicting Minerva, while at the two ends hints of figures painted on a dark background have replaced the lost reliefs. The interior of the arch is decorated with grotesques on a white background. In the lower part of the span, the two lateral ones, decorated with vegetal spirals on a white background, have lost the stucco reliefs placed to ornament the lunettes at the ends. At the base of the niche there are three panels with gilded stucco frames decorated with small festoons and vegetal spirals; the two sides host images of two birds.