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

The third southern bay (starting from the east) is part of the original Giulio Romano loggia (1538-1539) but underwent substantial additions following the transformation of the space into a gallery: as evidenced by Andreasi's relief (ca. 1567), large windows occupied the entire interior space of the arch, which was then partially filled in to create smaller windows. Therefore, the painted lunette with a circular niche and the apparatus framing the window (an oblique faux marble panel and lateral panels with vegetal scrolls and monochrome figurines at the ends, with a faux marble plinth) date back to the decorative phase of the late 16th/early 17th century (ca. 1595-1612). The Andreasi relief also highlights that, against the left pilaster, on a small shelf, there once rested a bust of a Roman emperor (Lucius Verus Commodus, who later moved to England in 1627 and was lost). As in the lunettes above the doors on the opposite wall, a circular niche in gilded stucco is located here, intended as a backdrop for a bust (today it houses a recently installed plaster head). It is flanked by two winged male allegorical figures (representing Victories), the first with a gilded shield adorned with a lightning bolt, the second holding a banner with the initials “S.P.Q.R.”. On the outside, the segments between the arch and the pilasters house two stucco high reliefs depicting winged youths, the one on the left, seated on a barrel, holding a small barrel and a tub (the month of July), the one on the right, a large cornucopia (August). The splay of the window features a decoration of fake marble, varied at the two lower ends by the insertion of two monochrome figures on a dark background, imitating small stucco reliefs, which recall the four inserted in the external sides: in the splay we can recognize a probable Virtue and a Faith, in the four external panels two musician putti, a figure of a seated old man and a sleeping naked girl.