"Adoration of the Magi"
On her arrival in Mantua in 1490 the young Marchesa Isabella judged Mantegna's art out-of-date and flaunted her partiality for a more pleasant and sentimental type of painting. In spite of an evident reticence, the old master's ultimate creations The Adoration of the Magi, Ecce Homo and The Holy Family reveal a more gentle execution and an emotional content which seem to reflect this new climate. At the very end of his life, Mantegna worked on two canvases, the Holy Family with the family of John the Baptist and The Baptism of Christ, for his funerary chapel in the church of Sant'Andrea, a consecration of the social prestige acquired at the end of a long career.