Giulio Romano, a pupil of Raphael, designed the palace for Federico II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, who wanted a palace of leisure. The article calls it the acknowledged masterpiece of Romano. It was built from 1524 to 1534 at the family stables on Isola del Te, at the edge of the marshes outside the city walls. The shell went up within eighteen months, and the decoration took about ten years.
The article calls the style Mannerist. It is a square house around a cloistered courtyard, with rusticated walls, flat pilasters and frescoes, and the courtyard surfaces use broken plaster. The east facade has Palladian motifs and an open central loggia, and the facades are not fully symmetrical. Its rooms include the Sala di Psiche and the Sala dei Giganti.
The palace was looted in July 1630 and left an empty shell. Part of it houses the Museo Civico del Palazzo Te. The article gives no ownership or visiting details.
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