During more than forty years Andrea had now lived at Mantua in the service of the Gonzagas. Both at their court and throughout Italy he was held in the highest honour, and enjoyed a degree of favour and consideration which, but few artists have known in their lifetime. His children were, with the one exception of Gian’ Andrea, grown up and well provided for; he had lands and possessions of his own both in town and country and what he valued even more—a collection of precious antiquities. Behind him lay a whole lifetime of great works, and although now in his seventieth year his powers as yet showed no trace of weakness or failing. We have seen how rich in works of every branch of art was this last decade of the fifteenth century; how untiring was his activity, and how fresh and inexhaustible the treasures of his imagination. Everything seemed to foretell an old age of honour and prosperity, in which the great master should still charm men by the creations of his brain and hand, and yet as his bodily powers grew weaker should enjoy more of the repose to which he was so well entitled. But this was not to be, and the last few years of Mantegna’s lifetime are a weary record of sorrows and misfortune. Again we find him involved in pecuniary difficulties, brought on by his own extravagance, and very probably by that of his son, Francesco; in order to meet his liabilities he was compelled to part with the beautiful house which he had decorated with his own hand, and to live in lodgings, which he disliked extremely. Yet, with the strange recklessness that formed part of his character, we find him entering into new and imprudent engagements. In March, 1504, he made a will, leaving a sum of money to his son Francesco and the chief part of his fortune to Lodovico, together with the charge of bringing up the child Gian’ Andrea, in whose favour he afterwards altered certain provisions. At the same time he left two hundred ducats for the endowment of the chapel of San Giovanni, in Alberti’s large church of Sant’ Andrea, as a burial-place for himself and his family. Special mention is made of his wife, Niccolosia, who had died some years before; and masses are ordered to be said for the repose of her soul. In August of the same year (1504) he obtained possession of this chapel by a contract with Sigismondo Gonzaga, Bishop of Mantua, and the canons of the church. Its decoration now became his favourite scheme, and it was his intention to paint the walls in fresco and to erect a family monument there. He bought a piece of ground outside to prevent the windows from being blocked up by building, and announced his intention of turning it into a garden, where he could spend his time in summer, and build a small room, where he might keep himself warm in winter, “in order,” he adds touchingly, “that I may take a little rest in my old age.” But all this expenditure became the cause of fresh difficulties, and added to the burdens under which Andrea already groaned.