Un certo vescovo d’Ungheria e i suoi amici

Abstract

In Lives of the Artists, Vasari mentions a “certain Hungarian bishop” portrayed on the frescoes of the Ovetary Chapel, who has been traditionally identified as the poet Janus Pannonius, the future bishop of Pécs. The double portrait Mantegna also painted of Pannonius and Galeotto Marzio, celebrating their friendship, was inspired in the treatise De Amicitia, by Cicero, one of the greatest influences of the beginning of Humanism. According to Burckhardt, this twin portrait of both humanists might have been the first example of people represented on terms of their personal friendship and scholastic bonds rather than of blood or professional ties. The painting is only known from the laudatory poem Pannonius offered to Mantegna..