In the spring of 1530 the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor Charles V Habsburg visited Mantua as part of his tour of Italy. He was greeted with all the pageantry that Federico II Gonzaga could muster: thousands of marching soldiers and mounted knights in rich costumes, booming artillery salvos, the fanfare of tambourines and horns, the welcoming shouts of the Mantuan populace, and a day of entertainments at Federico's palatial retreat on the Isola del Te. The banquets, dancing, and conversations that occurred at the Palazzo Te encouraged visitors to dynamically interact with the building in ways that produced gendered identities. Charles’ visit therefore provides a lens through which we can examine intersections between the staging of space and the performance of gender.

Charles V arrived in Mantua on 25 March 1530, a little more than month after his coronation by Pope Clement VII in Bologna. His visit cemented the political alliance between the Holy Roman Empire and Mantua, which had recently been strengthened when Federico allowed imperial troops to march freely through his territory on their way to Rome in 1527. In exchange for his loyalty, Charles V elevated Federico to the status of Duke on 8 April 1530, a long-awaited political and social triumph for the Gonzaga dynasty. For Federico the imperial visit was not only an occasion to celebrate rising Gonzaga fortunes, but also a representation of magnificence and splendor that would impress his new status upon visiting dignitaries, as well as nobles within his own court.