Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
chewed the cool classicism of the past in favour of wildly distorted perspectives, a pastel
colour palette and esoteric symbols.
The second room, the
Camera delle Imprese
(Room of the Devices), sets the scene with a
number of key symbols: the salamander, the symbol of Federico, the four eagles of the
Gonzaga standard and Mt Olympus, the symbol of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, from
whom the Gonzaga received their titles and in whose name they ruled Mantua. The pur-
pose of Renaissance devices was to encode messages, mottos and virtues so that visitors
to the palace could 'read' where loyalties lay and navigate political power structures. Fe-
derico's device, the salamander, is accompanied by the quote: 'quod hic deest, me torquet'
(what you lack, torments me), alluding to his notoriously passionate nature when com-
pared to the cold-blooded salamander.
The culmination of the symbolic narrative, however, comes together masterfully in the
Camera dei Giganti
(Chamber of the Giants), a domed room where frescoes cover every inch
of wall with towering figures of the rebellious giants (disloyal subjects) clawing their way
up Mt Olympus (symbol of Charles V) only to be laid low by Jupiter's (Charles') thunder-
bolt. The effect is spectacular. As the viewer you are both spectator and participant, stand-
ing in the centre of the scene, the worried faces of Olympian gods stare down at you,
would-be presumptuous giant or loyal subject?
The symbolism was not lost on Emperor Charles V who visited the palace in 1530 and
afterwards raised Federico up from a marquis to a duke.
Teatro Bibiena
THEATRE
( 0376 32 76 53;
www.societadellamusica.it
; Via dell'Accademia 47; adult/child €2/1.20; 9.30am-12.30pm &
3-6pm Tue-Sun)
If ever a theatre was set to upstage the actors, it's the 18th-century Teatro
Bibiena. Its design is highly unusual: a bell-shaped four storeys of intimate, stucco bal-
conies arranged around curving walls. The theatre's shape was specifically intended to al-
low its patrons to be seen - balconies even fill the wall behind the stage. Just a few weeks
after it opened in 1769, the theatre hosted a concert by the 14-year-old Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart.
