When Pope Pius II stayed in Mantua for a church council in 1459, he complained that it was 'marshy and unhealthy...all you can hear are the frogs'. Surrounded by lakes, Mantua in the fifteenth century was a small city-state squeezed between much larger and more powerful neighbours Ferrara, Milan and Venice. This lecture investigates the transformation of the city under its Gonzaga rulers from provincial backwater to internationally esteemed cultural capital, with major projects by humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti and court artists Pisanello and Andrea Mantegna.

Proudly sponsored by Arab Bank Australia and Sir William Dobell Art Foundation