Council of Mantua (1459)
Encyclopedia
Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini was Pope from August 19, 1458 until his death in 1464. Pius II was born at Corsignano in the Sienese territory of a noble but decayed family...
, who had been elected to the Papacy in the previous year and was engaged in planning war against the Ottoman Turks
Ottoman Turks
The Ottoman Turks were the Turkish-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks is scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı , from the house of Osman I The Ottoman...
, who had taken Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
in 1453. His call went out to the rulers of Europe, in an agonized plea to turn from internecine warfare to face Christendom's common enemy.
Process of the Council of 1459
Pius entered Mantua on 27 May; his long progress to the place of assembly resembled a triumphal procession. He opened the council on the first of June and waited in MantuaMantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...
as the guest of Ludovico Gonzaga
Ludovico II of Gonzaga
Ludovico III of Gonzaga, also spelled Lodovico was the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua from 1444 to his death in 1478.-Parents:Ludovico was the son of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga and Paola Malatesta...
until September for the various representatives to assemble. On 26 September he called for a new crusade against the Ottomans. The refugee Cardinal Bessarion and Cardinal Juan de Torquemada
Juan de Torquemada
Juan de Torquemada may refer to:* Juan de Torquemada , Spanish cardinal and ecclesiastical author; uncle to Inquisitor, Tomás de Torquemada...
were in attendance. The Duke of Burgundy was represented at the Council by the duke of Clèves, who brought in his train the young Burgundian cleric Ferry de Clugny
Ferry de Clugny
Ferry de Clugny, Cardinal and Bishop of Tournai was a highly-placed statesman and ecclesiastic in the service of the Dukes of Burgundy....
. The humanist Isotta Nogarola
Isotta Nogarola
Isotta Nogarola was an Italian writer and intellectual. She was passionate about her education, and became one of the most famous female humanists of the Italian Renaissance, inspiring generations of female artists and writers...
wrote and dispatched to Pope Pius an oration favoring a crusade.
The painter Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son in law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality...
had been invited to Mantua by Ludovico in 1457; although remaining in Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
, he painted the Agony in the Garden that is in the National Gallery, London
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...
, for its Podestà
Podestà
Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...
; in Mantegna's picture, the disciples sleep in Gethsemane, while Jerusalem is envisaged as Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, with the rising crescent moon signifying its capture by the Turk.. Long after the pope's death, the artist Pinturicchio
Pinturicchio
Bernardino di Betto, called Pintoricchio or Pinturicchio was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He acquired his nickname, Pintoricchio , because of his small stature, and he used it to sign some of his works....
painted the convocation of the council among the scene's from Pius' life on the walls of the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral.
Criticism and effects
Not all the leaders of the Church were in favor of a Crusade. The Venetian Cardinal Ludovico Trevisan, patriarch of Aquileia, met Pius in Siena, 16 March, and followed the pope to Mantua, although he opposed the aims of the Council.By the time the Council was disbanded in January 1460, an ineffectual call for a new crusade
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
against the Infidel
Infidel
An infidel is one who has no religious beliefs, or who doubts or rejects the central tenets of a particular religion – especially in reference to Christianity or Islam....
had been decided upon, and proclaimed by Pius on 14 January. One of the only European rulers to fully endorse the Crusade was Vlad III, though he was too preoccupied defending his native Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
to contribute troops.. The paper crusade was to last for three years and was to prove ineffectual. Pius would die in Ancona
Ancona
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region, in central Italy, with a population of 101,909 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region....
, making one last effort to launch this campaign by his own example.
Historians of the Tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
like Heinrich Brockhaus have asserted that the so-called Tarocchi di Mantegna were devised and made during the sitting of this council.