The Tombs of the Doges of Venice from the Beginning of the Serenissima to 1907. Benjamin Paul, ed. Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani 18. Rome: Viella, 2016. 596 pp. €40.
order to distinguish his contributions from interventions by later restorers. Jérémie Koering’s essay on the painted facades of the Ducal Palace provides an important reminder of the chromatic impact and variety of these decorations—which included fictive architecture, landscapes, and heraldry—that once adorned the exterior of much of this vast princely residence. In a particularly entertaining contribution, Paolo Carpeggiani recounts the building history of Federico’s country residence at Marmirolo, where Giulio’s additions to the structure and its gardens are abstractly evoked in a landscape painting of ca. 1595 by Flemish artist Sebastian Vranx and now conserved in Rouen. Although clearly an imagined capriccio, Carpeggiani examines the painting to shed light on how princely gardens like those at Marmirolo were laid out and used by members of the court for al fresco meals and pastimes like ball games. The three final essays treat paintings and drawings by other artists who were active at, or produced artworks for, Federico’s court. Stefano L’Occaso offers a magisterial romp through several European drawing collections, examining figural studies attributed to Giulio and members of his circle such as Fermo Ghisoni, Giovan Battista Bertani, Bernardino Gatti, and Ippolito Andreasi, identifying them as preparatory studies for surviving decorations at Palazzo Te, Palazzo Ducale, and various villas and churches in Mantua, Rome, and Piacenza. Renato Berzaghi reconstructs the program for Federico’s Palazzo Ducale Cabinet of Caesars, including the room’s damaged vault frescoes, important copies of which Berzaghi identifies in the recently recovered decorations created in the 1570s to adorn the vault of the star-shaped tower at the Corte Castiglione in Casatico. Mariarosa Palvarini Gobio Casali’s concluding essay discusses the maiolica service made for Federico in the 1530s by Nicolo d’Urbino, comparing it to the larger, earlier, and better-known service produced by the same artist for Federico’s mother, Isabella d’Este. Carefully edited and generously illustrated with black and white but perfectly serviceable images, this volume shines a long overdue spotlight on Federico II Gonzaga, finally the protagonist of the rich artistic and architectural projects created under his patronage.