This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2011) |
Ludovico II of Gonzaga, also spelled Lodovico (June 5, 1412 – June 12, 1478) was the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua from 1444 to his death in 1478.[1]
Ludovico II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua | |
|---|---|
 The Court of Mantua, detail: Ludovico II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua | |
| Born | 5 June 1412 Mantua |
| Died | 12 June 1478 (aged 66) Goito |
| Noble family | House of Gonzaga |
| Spouse(s) | Barbara of Brandenburg |
| Father | Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga |
| Mother | Paola Malatesta |
Parents
Ludovico was the son of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga and Paola Malatesta. In 1437, he married Barbara of Brandenburg,[1] niece of Emperor Sigismund.
Biography
He succeeded to the marquisate of Mantua in 1444.[2]
Ludovico followed the path of his father Gianfrancesco, fighting as condottiero for the Visconti of the Duchy of Milan from 1446, but spent the following year in the service of Venice in the league formed with Florence against Milan. In 1450 he received permission to lead an army for King Alfonso of Naples in Lombardy, with the intent of gaining some possessions for himself. However, Francesco Sforza, the new duke of Milan, enticed him with the promise of Lonato, Peschiera and Asola, formerly Mantuan territories but then part of Venice. Venice responded by sacking Castiglione delle Stiviere (1452) and hiring Ludovico's brother, Carlo.[2]
On June 14, 1453, Ludovico routed the troops of Carlo at Goito, but Venetian troops under Niccolò Piccinino thwarted any attempt to regain Asola. The Peace of Lodi (1454) obliged Ludovico to give back all his conquests, and to renounce definitively his claim to the three cities.[2] However, he obtained his brother's land after Carlo's childless death in 1478.
The moment of highest prestige for Mantua was the Council held in the city from May 27, 1459 to January 19, 1460, summoned by Pope Pius II to launch a crusade against the Ottoman Turks, who had conquered Constantinople some years earlier. However, the pope was not satisfied with the host city, writing: "The place was marshy and unhealthy, and the heat burnt up everything; the wine was unpalatable and the food unpleasant." However, the council ended on a note of great personal prestige for Ludovico with the elevation of his son Francesco to the purple.[3]
From 1466 Ludovico was more or less constantly at the service of the Sforza of Milan. He died in Goito in 1478, during a plague. He was buried in Mantua cathedral.[2]
Education and enculturation
On the orders of his father, Ludovico's education had been entrusted to the humanist Vittorino da Feltre. Vittorino undertook "the difficult enterprise in the interests of the commonwealth for... the education of a good prince would benefit the people he ruled." The teaching was markedly moral and religious and contained a "vein of laical asceticism almost." This, argues the arts scholar Franco Borsi, explains not only Ludovico's religious faith that led him to found churches and host Pius II's Council, but also his concern for a humanistic culture and the growth in public works throughout the city, from the paving of the streets and building of a clock tower to the reorganisation of the city centre.[3] Among the famous humanists invited to the city was the Florentine Leon Battista Alberti, who designed the San Sebastiano church and the San' Andrea church. Also, in 1460, Ludovico appointed Andrea Mantegna as court artist to the Gonzaga family.
Ludovico is prominently featured in the Treatise on Architecture, from circa 1465, by the Florentine sculptor-architect Antonio di Pietro Averlino (c. 1400 – c. 1469), better known as Filarete.[4] The treatise takes the format of a Platonic dialogue, featuring an unnamed architect (evidently Filarete himself) who is building a new city for a princely patron (evidently Francesco Sforza of Milan). During the dialogue interspersing the treatise they are visited by another lord, in the figure of Ludovico: his role in the dialogue is to persuade Sforza that he has seen the error of his ways in showing favour in "modern architecture", by which is meant Gothic architecture, and, having seen the architecture of antiquity in Rome, now favours such architecture instead, which is also what Filarete is also trying to persuade his patron.
Children
Ludvico and Barbara had ten children:[1]
- Federico I
- Gianfrancesco (1443–1496)
- Francesco (1444–1483), created cardinal by Pope Pius II
- Susanna (Nun at Santa Chiara di Mantua; 1447–1481) betrothed to Galeazzo Maria Sforza.
- Dorotea (1449–1467), betrothed to Galeazzo Maria Sforza.
- Rodolfo (1451–1495), married Antonia Malatesta and then Caterina Pico (died 1501)
- Cecilia (1452–1472)
- Barbara (1455–1503), married in 1474 Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg.
- Lodovico (1458–1511)
- Paola (1463–1497), married Leonhard of Gorizia.
It was said that the daughters of Barbara and Ludovico II had hunched backs, that is why Susanna and Dorothea were spurned by Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Leonhard of Gorizia postponed his marriage to Paola due to this and when they eventually married they had one stillborn child as it is thought that this deformity in her made it harder to have children. [5]
References
- ^ a b c Giuseppe Coniglio, I Gonzaga. Varese: Dall'Oglio, 1967.
- ^ a b c d Damiani, Roberto (January 17, 2011). "Note biografiche di Capitani di Guerra e di Condottieri di Ventura operanti in Italia nel 1330 - 1550". Condottieri di ventura (in Italian). Retrieved January 31, 2011.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|trans_title=ignored (|trans-title=suggested) (help) Translate this Italian web page to English - ^ a b Franco Borsi, Leon Battista Alberti. Harper & Row, New York, 1977.
- ^ Filarete's Treatise on Architecture; Being the Treatise by Antonio di Piero Averlino, Known as Filarete. Translated with an Introduction by John R. Spencer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965.
- ^ Marie Ferranti, The Princess of Mantua. Hesperus Press, 2005.
See also
