#COCKATOO PHILADELPHIA PROFESSIONAL#
Wiley is a global provider of content and content-enabled workflow solutions in areas of scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly research professional development and education. Its presence not only confirms the interests and purchasing power of Mantegna and his patrons, the Gonzagas, it reveals the complexity and range of South-East Asian trading networks prior to the establishment of European trading posts in the region. The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo in the Madonna della Vittoria provides a unique opportunity to place fifteenth-century Italy in its global context. I also explore the intriguing issue of how a creature native to regions generally considered to have been beyond Europe's trading reach in 1496 could have appeared in a Renaissance artwork. In this article, I consider why Mantegna would have included parrots in his altarpiece and the symbolic significance of the cockatoo's position in the composition. Although Mantegna's altarpiece has been the subject of attention in modern scholarship, the significance of the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo has not been explored.
![cockatoo philadelphia cockatoo philadelphia](https://cdn.fotofits.com/responsive/1200x1200/petzlover/gallery/img/l/macaw-638071.png)
This article focuses on that image – a small but significant detail in Andrea Mantegna's Madonna della Vittoria, completed in Mantua in 1496.
![cockatoo philadelphia cockatoo philadelphia](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Dw_UFBamsHk/maxresdefault.jpg)
The earliest image of an Australasian parrot by a European artist predates the arrival of Vasco de Gama's fleet at Calicut on the Malabar Coast in 1498.