Antonio Ovetari was a Padua notary who, at his death, left a large sum for the decoration of the family chapel in the
Church of the Eremitani. The project was carried out by his widow, Imperatrice Ovetari, who, in 1448, commissioned the work to a group of artists, which included the elder
Giovanni d'Alemagna,
Antonio Vivarini (a Venetian late Gothic painter) and two young Paduans,
Niccolò Pizzolo and
Andrea Mantegna. The latter at the time was seventeen years old and had just begun his apprenticeship in
Squarcione's workshop. According to the original agreement, the first two artists had to paint the arch with histories of the Passion of Christ (never executed), the cross vault and the right wall (
Histories of St. Chrisopther) while the two Paduans would paint the rest, including the left wall (
Histories of St. James, son of Zebedee) and the apse. In 1449 there were the first personal problems between Mantegna and Pizzolo, the latter accusing the former of continuous interferences in the execution of the chapel's altarpiece. This led to a redistribution of the works among the artists; perhaps due to this Mantegna halted his work and visited
Ferrara. In 1450 Giovanni, who had executed only the decorative festoons of the vault, died; the following year Vivarini also left the work, after he had completed four Evangelists in the vault. They were replaced by
Bono da Ferrara and
Ansuino da Forlì, whose style was influenced by that of
Piero della Francesca. Mantegna began to work from the apse vault, where he placed three saints, mixed with the
Doctors of the Church by Pizzolo. Later Mantegna likely moved to the
lunette on the left wall, with the
Vocation of Sts. James and John and the
Preaching of St. James, completed within 1450, and then moved to the middle sector. At the end of 1451 the works were halted due to lack of funds. They were restarted in November 1453 and completed in 1457. This second phase saw Mantegna alone at work, as Pizzolo had also died in 1453. Mantegna completed the
Stories of St. James, frescoed the central wall with the
Assumption of the Virgin and then completed the lower sector of the
Stories of St. Cristopher begun by Bono da Ferrara and Ansuino da Forlì, where he painted two unified scenes: the
Martyrdom of St. Christopher. In 1457, Imperatrice Ovetari sued Mantegna, accusing him of having painted, in the
Assumption, only eight apostles instead of twelve. Two painters from Milan, Pietro da Milano and Giovanni Storlato, were called in to solve the matter. They justified Mantegna's choice due to the lack of space. Around 1880 two scenes, the
Assumption and the
Martyrdom of St. Christopher, were detached from the walls. During
World War II the two frescoes were stored in a separate location and were thus saved from the destruction of all the rest of the cycle during an
Allied air bombardment of 11 March 1944. The destroyed scenes had been documented in black-and-white photographs as well as a few copies, and for Mantegna's quincentenary commemoration in 2006 the surviving fragments were combined with reconstructions in the original venue. Padova Chiesa degli Eremitani Innen Chorfresken 4.jpg|Present reconstruction of
Storie di San Giacomo Padova GS, Cappella Ovetari.JPG|Detail, the
Miracolo di San Giacomo Mantegna Ovetari4.jpg|Photo before destruction Padova Chiesa degli Eremitani Innen Chorfresken 3.jpg|The
Storie di San Cristoforo. The bottom scenes had been removed before the bombing. File:Mantegna, martirio di san cristoforo, copia del museo jacquemart-andrè.jpg|A 15c. copy of the
Martyrdom of St Christopher (
Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Paris) File:Mantegna, trasporto del corpo di san cristoforo, copia del museo jacquemart-andrè.jpg|Copy of ''Transpoting of St Christopher's Body'' (
Musee Jacquemart-Andre) ==Description==