Painted and patterned ceilings were a Gothic tradition in Italy as elsewhere, but the first ceiling painted to feign open space was created by Andrea Mantegna, a master of perspective who went to Mantua as court painter to the Gonzaga. His masterpiece was a series of frescoes that culminated in 1474 in the Camera degli Sposi of the Ducal Palace. In these works, he carried the art of illusionistic perspective to new limits. He frescoed the walls with illusionistic scenes of court life, while the ceiling appeared as if it were an oculus open to the sky, with courtiers, a peacock, and putti leaning over a balustrade, seen in strongly foreshortened perspective from below;"di sotto in sù". This was the prototype of illusionistic ceiling painting that was to become an important element of Italian Baroque art.