Mantegna works in Mantua for the ruling Gonzaga family from 1459.

The Marquis Ludovico II Gonzaga of Mantua had for some time been pressing Mantegna to enter his service, and Mantegna had been appointed court artist in 1460.

He resided at first from time to time at Goito, but from December 1466 onward he had moved with his family to Mantua.

His engagement is for a salary of seventy-five lire a month, a sum so large for that period as to mark conspicuously the high regard in which his art is held.

He is in fact the first painter of any eminence ever domiciled in Mantua.

His Mantuan masterpiece is painted in the apartment of the Castle of the city, today known as Camera degli Sposi (literally, "Wedding Chamber"): a series of full compositions in fresco including various portraits of the Gonzaga family and some figures of genii.