The Sculptor of Renaissance Mantua In the vibrant, intellectual heart of the High Renaissance, where the shadows of antiquity met the burgeoning humanism of the fifteenth century, Gian Marco Cavalli emerged as a master of form and metal. Born around 1454 in the quiet town of Viadana, Lombardy, Cavalli’s life was inextricably linked to the cultural flowering of Mantua. As the son of Andrea Cavalli, a respected notary, he moved within a social stratum that valued both classical learning and civic prestige. While the archival traces of his early years remain as delicate as fine chasing, his art…