Palazzo Ducale | Sala dei Fiumi

The Sala dei Fiumi was designed in 1579 at the behest of Guglielmo Gonzaga and looked out like a closed loggia onto the hanging garden, raised 12 meters above Piazza Sordello. The current appearance of the Sala dei Fiumi is mainly due to interventions carried out between 1773 and 1775. The pictorial decorations on the walls and on the vault were in fact created when the Old Court of the Ducal Palace was used as the official residence of the Austrian government.
In 1773 the theatrical painter Gaetano Crevola began to paint the architectural-decorative frame in the shape of a pergola, while the creation of the figures of the Rivers on the walls and the decoration of the vault were entrusted to one of the most appreciated artists of the time, the Veronese Giorgio Anselmi who in the immediately following years also painted the dome of the Basilica of Sant’Andrea.
On the walls Anselmi portrayed the personifications of the rivers of the Mantua area (Po, Oglio, Chiese, Mincio, Secchia), on the vault he created the mythological theme of Phaeton asking for the chariot of the Sun from his father Apollo. Arranged around the central episode are the figures of the Hours and Saturn, portrayed from behind and with a view from below, iconographic references to the passage of time.