Palazzo Ducale | Galleria degli Specchi
The Sala or Galleria degli Specchi is located in the oldest part of the Palazzo Ducale called Corte Vecchia. Originally the environment was built in the form of a loggia, opening onto the courtyard of honor, but by 1611 it was closed and housed the most important paintings of the Gonzaga collection.
The gallery had the largest pictorial decoration ever performed in the palace, datable to around 1618 and inspired by the celebration of the sciences and the arts, with allegorical figures drawn from Cesare Ripa’s Iconology. The Parnassus was painted in the two large lunette at the heads, where portraits of poets appear together with Apollo and the Muses (at least Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Ariosto and Tasso are recognized) and the Allegory of the Liberal Arts.
On the lunettes of the long internal wall and in the two extreme parts of the vault, images of Virtue follow one another. In 1779 the walls were renovated with gilded stucco and mirrors as we see them today.
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