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{{Infobox
| image=Peter Paul Rubens - The Gonzaga Family Worshipping the Holy Trinity - WGA20179.jpg
| title=Gonzaga Family in Adoration of the Holy Trinity
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| museum=[[Ducal Palace, Mantua|Ducal Palace]]
}}
'''''The Gonzaga Family in Adoration of the Holy Trinity''''' (also, '''''The Trinity Adored by the Gonzaga Family''''' or '''''The Gonzaga Trinity''''') is a painting by the Flemish artist [[Peter Paul Rubens]], housed in the [[Ducal Palace, Mantua|Ducal Palace]] in [[Mantua]], Italy. The work was commissioned by Duke [[Vincenzo I Gonzaga]] for the Jesuit church in Mantua, while Rubens was his court painter.
The work represents the central part of a [[triptych]], of which the two side panels were the ''[[Transfiguration (Rubens)|Transfiguration]]'' and the ''Baptism of Christ''. During the 19th-century French occupation of northern Italy in the [[Napoleonic Wars]], the work was split, and some portions were lost.
The canvas portrays Vincenzo I and his wife [[Eleonora de' Medici]] near images of the duke's parents, [[Guglielmo X Gonzaga|Guglielmo Gonzaga]] and [[Eleonore of Austria]]. Also depicted are several of their children with some [[halberdier]]s, one of whom is Rubens's self-portrait.
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| Rubens, ''Transfiguration'', 1604-1605, Nancy, Musée des beaux-arts
}}
The three Rubens paintings remained in their original places up to the Napoleonic occupation of Mantua in 1797.{{r|Huemer2|p=84}} In the period of [[Napoleonic looting]], the Church of the Holy Trinity was sacked and the Flemish paintings were removed by the commissioner Etienne-Marie Siauve.{{r|Huemer2|p=84}} The side canvases were taken over the Alps, where they can be found today (''The Baptism'' at Anversa and ''The Transfiguration'' at Nancy).
[[File:La Trinità adorata dalla famiglia Gonzaga (ricostruzione).png|thumb|Reconstruction of ''The Gonzaga Family in Adoration of the Holy Trinity'' as it is displayed at the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua]]
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== Description and style ==
The painting depicts an open-air scene in a gallery with, on the side, two rows of richly historiated, twisted columns and a balustrade in perspective. At the center of the gallery, on the left, are Vincenzo Gonzaga and his father Guglielmo Gonzaga behind him. On the right, on the first floor, is Vincenzo's wife Eleonora de' Medici. Behind her is the mother of the duke, Eleonora d'Austria. Both Guglielmo Gonzaga and his wife Eleonora were already dead by the time of the painting's making.
As much as it's possible to reconstruct the composition, the children of the ducal couple were represented on the sides (almost below the colonnade). The male children to the left, and to the right the female. On the left, therefore, were [[Francesco IV Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua|Francesco Gonzaga]] of [[Ferdinando Gonzaga]] and [[Vincenzo II Gonzaga]], while on the right [[Margherita Gonzaga, Duchess of Lorraine|Margherita]] and [[Eleonora Gonzaga (1598–1655)|Eleonora Gonzaga]] were depicted. Always on the sides of the painting were included some halberdiers, of the [[Swiss guard]]s. One of them is a self-portrait of Rubens.{{r|Huemer2|p=84}}
When the painting was cut apart, the side sections were removed and reduced to pieces to extract the portraits of the children as paintings in their own right. These portraits where all divided (they are now found in various different places) with the exception of Eleonora Gonzaga. The only fragment referring to the future empress Eleonora is that of the little dog, which the girl was caressing (as testified in old descriptions of the work). Among the other identified fragments, there is also one of the halberdiers, although it is not the self-portrait of Rubens.
The entire family group is kneeling in prayer, while the Holy Ghost appears above. The composition's depiction of the ducal family is similar to sculpture groups by [[Leone Leoni|Leone]] and [[Pompeo Leoni]] at [[El Escorial]] that represent the family of [[Carlo V]] and [[Philip II of Spain]]. Rubens could have seen those sculptures during his diplomatic voyage to Spain in 1603 for Vincenzo Gonzaga.<ref name=Huemer/>
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Nor does the painting lack references to [[Raphael]]: indeed, educational trips to Rome were one of the fundamental steps of the young Rubens. The twisted columns of the gallery are clearly examples of Raphael's drawing {{ill|Guarigione dello storpio|lt=''The Healing of the Lame Man''|it}}. Their twisted design recalls those of the legendary Temple of Solomon, which according to ancient belief were brought to Rome and used to build the [[Basilica of Saint Peter]].{{r|Huemer2|p=85}} The reproduction of these columns in the painting might allude to how the coming of Christ is the improvement and verification of the Old Testament (since they symbolize the Solomonic columns).<ref name=Huemer/>
Near the top of the composition, a group of angels unrolls a golden tapestry on which the Holy Trinity is represented. This compositional choice has a single reason, it is a meditation in line with the severe dictates of the [[Council of Trent]] for religious depictions. According to those, a direct appearance of the divine to the laity would be inappropriate. Still, the Christ on the tapestry points to his father with his hand and the Duke clearly reacts to that gesture. In that way, the self-celebration of the work is revealed, as it divinely legitimizes Gonzaga's role as a sovereign.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zamperini |first1=Alessandra |title=Ricostruendo Rubens. La famiglia Gonzaga in adorazione della Trinità |pages=29–37 |chapter=Modelli filoasburgici, celebrazione dinastica e “pietas gonzaghesca” nella Pala della Trinità. Questioni di genere e di potere}}</ref>
Finally, just beyond the balustrade, an ivy branch that seems to almost touch Eleonora d'Austria is visible. The branch is a tribute to the mother of the Duke and is linked to the intended location of the painting: the ivy appears, in the enterprise of the Archduchess of the Hapsburgs, as a symbol of conjugal devotion (since this plant can't live if separated from the tree to which it is attached). The tribute to the deceased mother of the Duke adds, perhaps, to the idea that her female virtues are an example to all the women of the Gonzaga family, united in adoration.
== Preparatory drawings ==
There are three known preparatory drawings for ''The Gonzaga Family in Adoration of the Holy Trinity''. Two studies of Ferdinand and Francesco Gonzaga are stored together in the [[Nationalmuseum]] of Stockholm, and one study of a halberdier is in the [[Royal Library of Belgium]] in Brussels.
For the decorative plan of the chapel at the Church of the Holy Trinity, there is also a beautiful drawing for ''The Baptism'' at the Louvre. Rubens's studies for the Mantuan cycle are among his oldest that are known, with relatively certain dating.
{{Gallery
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== References ==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=Huemer2>{{cite journal |last1=Huemer |first1=Frances |title=Some Observations on Rubens' Mantua Altarpiece |journal=The Art Bulletin |date=March 1966 |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=84–85 |doi=10.1080/00043079.1966.10790214 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00043079.1966.10790214
}}
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[[Category:Paintings by Peter Paul Rubens]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Ducal Palace, Mantua]]
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[[Category:Paintings depicting the Holy Trinity]]
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