Martyrdom and transport of the decapitated body of St. Christopher

Mantegna's Martyrdom and Transport of the Decapitated Body of Saint James of 1454 in the Ovetari Chapel, Padua, is among the most audacious perspective experiments in early Renaissance painting, depicting a Roman arch seen from below — the figures at eye level below the viewer, the arch overhead — that demonstrates his systematic application of mathematical perspective to architectural representation. The fresco was almost entirely destroyed in World War II bombing, making the surviving documentation particularly precious. Mantegna's revolutionary perspective in the Ovetari Chapel established him as the most innovative fresco painter of his generation.

The perspective recession of the architectural setting demonstrates Mantegna's precocious command of the system that Brunelleschi and Alberti had recently codified. The figures are rendered with a sculptural solidity that transforms the flat wall into a convincing three-dimensional space.