ABSTRACT
Cesare Gonzaga was twenty-one years old in 1557 and he had less than that amount of time still to go before his own death in 1575. Had he been a minor at the time of Ferrante’s death, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga would have served as co-regent. A papal dinner, in May of 1562, caused Cesare to delay his scheduled departure for Mantua. The golden age of Guastalla over which Ferrante II presided, with Torquato Tasso serving as its chronicler and premier poet, represented the logical fruition of the Cesare’s dreams. Indeed it was largely due to Cesare that his son received an education worthy of his rank. The Galleria di Marmo was dismantled in 1587, but the building in which it was located survived until the eighteenth century when the old quattrocento structure was transformed into the present structure.
