Reporters and local VIPs were treated this week to a foretaste of a long-awaited trio of exhibitions, set to open next week, celebrating the life and work of Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna.
Dozens of media representatives crowded into Verona's Palazzo della Gran Guardia to sample parts of the tripartite event that has been talked about for months.
The shows, which open on September 16, are being staged in the northern Italian cities where Mantegna produced most of his work, and have been timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the artist's birth.
Padua, Mantua and Verona are exploring different aspects of his life and work, documenting the development of his career and the circles he mixed in.
Each of the parallel events will focus on a different aspect of Mantegna's achievements, with an emphasis on those masterpieces he produced in the respective cities.
More broadly, the Padua exhibit will trace Mantegna's artistic career throughout his life, while that in Mantua will focus on his output during early 50 years at the Court of the Gonzagas.
The Verona show will look at the historical, artistic and conservational studies on the artist and his life - a field that has seen some remarkable developments in recent years.
Featuring over 200 works in total, the Verona exhibit centres on two key works of art - the Trivulzio Madonna of 1497 and the San Zeno altarpiece of 1456-59 - using these as a springboard to build up an artistic mosaic of the northern city's cultural life in the 15th century.
There are paintings, drawings, engravings, miniatures, sculptures and medallions on display by a number of key names from the period, including Francesco Benaglio, Francesco Bonsignori, Liberale da Verona, Francesco Dai Libri and Domenico Morone.
The exhibit is also the last chance for the public to see the San Zeno altarpiece before it undergoes a two-year restoration which is scheduled to start immediately after the show.
The altarpiece will be exhibited alongside preparatory drawings as well as one of the altarpiece panels, which will be reunited with the San Zeno for the first time in over 200 years.
Mantegna (1431-1506) is regarded as northern Italy's first fully-fledged Renaissance painter. He grew up and first worked in Padua, where he was
taught to paint by Francesco Squarcione, who adopted him when he was 10 years old. At the age of 17, he set up his own workshop after falling out with Squarcione, whom he accused of exploiting his talent.
The show at Padua's Eremitani Museum explores much of the early part of his career but has also been timed to coincide with the unveiling of a restoration of one of his most famous frescoes.
The cycle that once adorned the walls of the Ovetari Chapel in Padua's Eremitani Church was destroyed on March 11, 1944, when an Allied plane bombed the site by accident. The following day, members of the public rooted through the rubble to recover the 80,000-odd pieces. These have finally been pieced back together 60 years later thanks to a state-of-the-art computer program.
While living in Padua, Mantegna also carried out a great deal of work in Verona, completing major commissions such as the Madonna in Glory with Saints John the Baptist, Gregory the Great, Benedict and Jerome, better known as the Trivulzio Madonna.
In the early 1460s, Mantegna moved to Mantua to work for the Gonzaga family.
He remained in their service for the rest of his life, creating some of his best works and ensuring the Gonzaga court rivalled those of Florence and Milan.
One of his most famous pieces is the 1474 Camera degli Sposi (The Bridal Chamber), in which he painted the walls and ceiling of a small room in the Palazzo Ducale to resemble an open-air pavilion.
The creation, which is the centrepiece of the exhibit, marked the first foray into illusionist ceiling painting since Roman times. The room appears to be open to the sky, with servants and cherubs leaning over a balustrade, a style that was to become a common feature in Baroque art.
However, Mantua's Palazzo Te has assembled a vast array of Mantegna paintings from around the world, tracing his 46-year career in the city.
The three exhibits open simultaneously on September 16 and run until the start of 2007.
