How does this artwork elucidate its History?
The painting was commissioned by Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga as the culminating work of a large cycle that comprised two other large canvases in the main chapel of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Mantua.: 84  The two other paintings depicted The Baptism of Christ and The Transfiguration and were located on the side walls of the chapel, while the Gonzaga Trinity was placed on the middle wall as the center of the triptych. The work was made between 1604 and 1605 and was inaugurated on the occasion of the Feast of the Trinity of 1605.The Church of the Holy Trinity was built to welcome the Society of Jesus to Mantua. The settlement of the Jesuits in the Gonzaga duchy was favored, above all, by the offices of the cardinal Ercole Gonzaga but their great benefactor was also Archduchess Eleanor of Austria, wife of the Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga. The Archduchess was most devoted to the Society (her personal confessor was a Jesuit) and promoted the construction of the Mantuan church of the Trinity, for which the Rubens cycle was created. The same church was chosen by Eleonor of Austria as the place of her burial: her remains were placed under its main altar, right in front of the presbytery chapel adorned by the Rubens paintings.The whole Rubens cycle, consistent with the dedication of the church that holds it, references the Catholic divine Trinity. It is clearly the theme of the Gonzaga Trinity but it is also recalled by the side paintings in the triptych. According to Catholicism, both the baptism of Christ and his transfiguration were moments of divine manifestation in which the divine nature of Christ as the "Son of God" were revealed, that is, as a member of the Trinity. In that way, the iconography of the Mantuan chapel corresponds to those of the Church of Jesus in Rome—an important Jesuit church. There the central altarpiece depicts the Trinity, flanked by Christ's baptism and transfiguration.The three Rubens paintings remained in their original places up to the Napoleonic occupation of Mantua in 1797.: 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.: 84  The side canvases were taken over the Alps, where they can be found today (The Baptism at Anversa and The Transfiguration at Nancy).The central painting, the Gonzaga Trinity, had a more unfortunate fate. It was cut into several sections by soldiers: sections in which the sons of Vincenzo Gonzaga and Eleonora de' Medici appeared along with several court guards were subdivided into various fragments, which mostly contained the portrait's faces and many of which are lost. The center of the composition was cut in two, horizontally. These two parts have been, as much as possible, reassembled and are now in the Ducal Palace of Mantua. Several of the partial fragments that can't be reintegrated into the rest of the painting are also kept there.
Vincenzo I Gonzaga Guglielmo Gonzaga Eleonora de' Medici Eleanor of Austria divine Trinity Napoleonic looting Mantua Jesuits Archduchess Eleanor of Austria Transfiguration Ducal Palace of Mantua Ducal Palace Ercole Gonzaga Society of Jesus triptych