Gonzaga Symbols in the Palazzo del Te

In its role as a visual embodiment of antique legend, retold to satisfy the tastes-and thus in some way to crystallize for contemporaries the character -of a powerful Renaissance patron, the Palazzo del Te is a direct successor to the Farnesina. What the latter was for Agostino Chigi, what the Palazzo Vecchio was to be for Cosimo I de' Medici and Fontainebleau for Francis I, such was the Palazzo del Te for Federigo Gonzaga. As Ernst Gombrich pointed out,' the building rapidly became in the words of Serlio an "Esempio veramente di Architettura et di Pittura a nostri tempi." The Palazzo del Te set the style for the architecture and decoration of Gonzaga residences in the Mantovano for more than a century; the ducal family of Bavaria had it reproduced at Landshut in detail; in the Palazzo Chiericati at Vicenza2 and in the Villa Foscari at Malcontenta3 were recapitulated entire rooms; Primaticcio stepped directly from his subordinate position in its execution to a leading role in the decoration of the palace of Fontainebleau; in 1623 the Earl of Arundel desired to bring back to England an exact model of the palace with an itemized account of the decorations in each room, if possible even Giulio's original model.4 Long before the Palazzo del Te was completed