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

This is the first northern bay of Giulio Romano's original loggia. At the center is a niche with a painted faux marble background and a shell-shaped basin, containing an ancient sculpture recently installed here. The headless statue of Minerva, missing upper limbs, stands on a high pedestal, adorned on the front with a relief depicting a soldier in a chariot. The upper part of the bay features an arch framing the basin of the niche, flanked by two high-relief stucco figures: two winged old men, among leafless tree branches (the months of January and February). The top of the arch is adorned with a stucco tondo depicting Peace, while the two small lunettes at the ends contain the traces of a lost relief (probably a pair of cherubs) and a pair of dancing cherubs. The interior of the arch is decorated with grotesques on a white background. The two upper lunettes of the lower part of the span depict cupids riding dolphins and flanked by a bird. In particular, the lower left lunette depicts a shepherd milking a goat, while the lower right lunette has completely lost its relief modeling. At the base of the niche are three panels with gilded stucco frames bordered by small festoons and vegetal scrolls: the two lateral ones feature the images of two birds, the central one a small rodent with very long hind legs. The relief on the north wall of the Giuliesca loggia by Andreasi (ca. 1567) attests to the fact that the niche of this span once housed a "Venus genetrix" (then complete with head and upper limbs), currently preserved at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.