TURA, Cosmè

Tura was the foremost painter of a series of pictures of the Muses for a ‘studiolo’ or study at the Este castle of Belfiore near Ferrara. This picture is thought to be one of the series. It would have been displayed high up in a room, hence the low vanishing-point.

The Roverella Polyptych is considered as one of Tura’s most important work. Originally it was located in the church of San Giorgio fuori le Mura in Ferrara where it was partially destroyed by a bomb in 1709. It was commissioned by Lorenzo Roverella, bishop of Ferrara.

According to the most accepted version of reconstruction the Madonna Enthroned constituted the central panel, this fragment showing St George belonged to the left panel, while on the right a panel representing Niccolò Roverella with two saints was located. On top of the altarpiece there was a Pietà. Below, on the predella there were seven tondos four of which are lost.

This is one of the three remaining tondos, the other two are the Circumcision and the Flight to Egypt.

Two medals, one representing Ercole I d’Este and his wife Eleonora of Aragon, and another representing their son, Alfonso d’Este, are attributed to Cosm� Tura, who was a portrait painter at the Este court in Ferrara. They were made to celebrate Ercole’s victory in 1476 over Leonello’s son Niccolò d’Este after the attempted coup by Niccolò, as well as the birth of Alfonso, the son of the ducal couple, six weeks before the coup.

Both medals are remarkable for their finely modeled, crisp low relief and realistic portraits. The reverse of the medal of Alfonso d’Este shows a self-possessed infant Hercules strangling two serpents while he calmly reclines on his left elbow in his crib. This scene advertises Alfonso as a second Hercules, a compliment as much for the father as for the son.

The upper scene depicts the triumphal car of Ceres and agricultural scenes. In the centre the astrological symbol Virgo. Below, Duke Borso receives dignitaries, and setting out on a hunt.

The upper scene depicts the Triumph of Ceres, below it astrologicall symbols are represented.

This detail shows the middle layer (zodiac sign Virgo) of the allegory of August. In the centre we can see a man figure symbolizing the Calculus, on the left the figure of Providence, on the right the Gratitude.

The attribution of this fresco is debated, part of the fresco is attributed to either Cossa or Roberti.

This detail shows the left part of the middle layer representing the zodiac sign Virgo.

The upper scene depicts the Triumph of Jupiter as an allegory of July. To the left is a wedding, and monks at a sanctuary, to the right clerics and knight, and a young man resting can be seen. In the centre the astrological symbol Leo, below Duke Borso receives dignitaries.

The attribution to Tura is debated.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 38 minutes):

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony in C Major (Jupiter-Symphony) K 551

The upper scene depicts the Triumph of Jupiter as an allegory of July. Below, astrological symbols are represented.

The attribution to Tura is debated.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 38 minutes):

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony in C Major (Jupiter-Symphony) K 551

The upper scene depicts the Triumph of Mercury as an allegory of June, to the left, men in a discussion and boys playing instruments, to the right, a shop and the beheaded Argus. In the centre the astrological symbol Cancer. Below, Duke Borso and his train riding toward the palace, receives petitioners, in the background landscape with the Po River.

The upper scene depicts the Triumph of Mercury as an allegory of June. Below, astrological symbols are represented.

The upper scene depicts the triumphal car of Maia, to the left Vulcan’s smithy, to the right the love nest of Mars and Venus. In the centre the astrological symbol Libra. Below, grape harvest, setting out on a hunt, Duke Borso receives ambassadors.

The attribution to Tura is debated, some scholars attribute it to Ercole de’Roberti.

The upper scene depicts the Triumph of Maia as an allegory of September. Below, astrological symbols are represented.

The attribution to Tura is debated, some scholars attribute it to Ercole de’Roberti.

The detail shows the love nest of Mars and Venus..

This detail shows the left part of the upper layer of the fresco. The scene represents the workshop of Vulcan.

The attribution to Tura is debated, some scholars attribute it to Ercole de’Roberti.

The detail shows the love nest of Mars and Venus..

In 1469 the cover of the organ of the Cathedral in Ferrara was painted by Tura. The Annunciation was visible in the closed state of the organ, while in the open state the panel representing St George and the Dragon was shown. The cover of the organ was transferred to the Museum in 1735.

The organ frontal for the Cathedral must serve as an introduction to the painter, although he was about thirty-nine years old when it was finished and obviously a fully formed painter. On one side was an Annunciation and on the other St George and the Princess, now shown on four separate canvases. These works were painted with tempera, although Tura seems frequently to have employed oils as well. They are emotionally charged, full of movement and intense expressionism. In the St George the frightened princess, placed close to the picture plane, moves swiftly to the left of the single canvas she occupies. Her fluttering, irregular draperies with decisive hills and valleys are carefully studied, but they do not follow the structure of her body or even her pose, becoming instead alive and rebelliously independent of the forms they hide.

The Roverella Polyptych is considered as one of Tura’s most important work. Originally it was located in the church of San Giorgio fuori le Mura in Ferrara where it was partially destroyed by a bomb in 1709. It was commissioned by Lorenzo Roverella, bishop of Ferrara.

According to the most accepted version of reconstruction the Madonna Enthroned constituted the central panel, this fragment showing St George belonged to the left panel, while on the right a panel representing Niccolò Roverella with two saints was located. On top of the altarpiece there was a Pietà. Below, on the predella there were seven tondos four of which are lost.

This is one of the three remaining tondos, the other two are the Adoration of Magi and the Flight to Egypt.

This miniature, attributed to Cosm� Tura, is from the manuscript “Del modo di regere e di regnare” by Antonio Cornazzano. This treatise on the manner of ruling was composed between September 1478 and February 1479. when Eleonora took the reins of government during the absence of her husband, Duke Ercole I d’Este.

In the miniature, the duchess is shown in strict profile, her gloved hand receiving a rod of rulership from God’s hand. Tura is not documented as a miniaturist, but he often worked on a miniature scale. However, it cannot be excluded that the miniature was painted by a professional miniaturist after the design of Tura.

Two medals, one representing Ercole I d’Este and his wife Eleonora of Aragon, and another representing their son, Alfonso d’Este, are attributed to Cosm� Tura, who was a portrait painter at the Este court in Ferrara. They were made to celebrate Ercole’s victory in 1476 over Leonello’s son Niccolò d’Este after the attempted coup by Niccolò, as well as the birth of Alfonso, the son of the ducal couple, six weeks before the coup.

Both medals are remarkable for their finely modeled, crisp low relief and realistic portraits.

The Roverella Polyptych is considered as one of Tura’s most important work. Originally it was located in the church of San Giorgio fuori le Mura in Ferrara where it was partially destroyed by a bomb in 1709. It was commissioned by Lorenzo Roverella, bishop of Ferrara.

According to the most accepted version of reconstruction the Madonna Enthroned constituted the central panel, this fragment showing St George belonged to the left panel, while on the right a panel representing Niccolò Roverella with two saints was located. On top of the altarpiece there was a Pietà. Below, on the predella there were seven tondos four of which are lost.

This is one of the three remaining tondos, the other two are the Circumcision and the Adoration of Magi.

Tura was one of the most individual artists of the fifteenth century. In this work the gnarled figures, the eerie, barren landscape and the unearthly pink of the morning sky are typical of his wonderfully imaginative approach to painting.

The particular qualities of Tura’s imagination are unique in art history. Harsh angularity and seemingly sinister forms are combined with extreme delicacy and a sense of wistful charm.

The iconography of this early painting is of Venetian type.

There are seven paintings of Tura of dimension very similar which certainly belonged to one or two polyptychs. Two lost altarpieces can be taken into account: one in San Luca in Borgo at Ferrara and another in San Giacomo at Argenta. There are several proposals of the reconstruction of these altarpieces. According to one suggestions the San Luca polyptych probably had this Madonna in the centre, St Anthony of Padua (presently in the Mus�e du Louvre, Paris), St Dominic (presently in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence), St Sebastian (presently in Berlin), St Christopher (presently in Berlin) on the side panels.

One of Tura’s major commissions was this large altarpiece for a Ferrarese church, which has since been divided between London National Gallery and the Louvre. Tura’s infinite imagination is apparent, even when dealing with conventional themes. The upper throne of the Virgin seems to come alive, as do the music-making angels which surround it.

The central panel of the Roverella altarpiece is startling in its combination of sculptural intensity with unexpected colour combinations. The usually neutral Renaissance architectural elements, for example, here alternate between green and pink, while the shell above the Virgin’s throne is surprisingly fluid in design. At the top of the throne, statues of the symbols of the four evangelists join winged putti and cornucopias from which dangle bunches of grapes.

The Roverella Polyptych is considered as one of Tura’s most important work. Originally it was located in the church of San Giorgio fuori le Mura in Ferrara where it was partially destroyed by a bomb in 1709. It was commissioned by Lorenzo Roverella, bishop of Ferrara, earlier the physician of Pope Julius V. Lorenzo Roverella was pictured on the left (destroyed) part of the altarpiece.

According to the most accepted version of reconstruction the Madonna Enthroned constituted the central panel, a fragment showing St George belonged to the left panel, while on the right a panel representing Niccolò Roverella, the brother of the bishop and general of the monastery to which the church belonged, with two saints was located. On top of the altarpiece there was a Pietà. Below, on the predella there were seven circular scenes illustrating the early life of Christ. Four of these scenes are lost.

On the central panel the Madonna is sitting among angels playing on musical instruments. The restoration in 1951-52 found an inscription on the case of the organ, mentioned by contemporary sources, containing a dedication to Roverella in Latin.

The nervous tension that characterizes Tura’s art is condensed in this small, dramatic painting. The figures are built up out of incisive, angular lines, while in the background rises the harsh, fretted shape of a mountain with three tall crosses set against a hard, jewel-like sky.

Seated on the sarcophagus that has the dual significance of tomb and altar, the very young Virgin is portrayed in the act of offering the body of Christ in sacrifice, in an obvious allusion to the Eucharist.

Strong northern influences can be observed in the painting, German (namely D�rer) and Rogier van der Weyden were suggested as the source of influence. The datation of the painting is debated.

Restored in 1956.

It is assumed that the Hebraic characters on the cover of the sepulchre contains the signature of the painter. It is also assumed that the painting was at the top of a lost polyptych.

This panel was at the top of the Roverella Polyptych.

The Pietà was a popular theme in northern Italy as well as north of the Alps, even before Michelangelo made his famous marble Pietà in Rome. Tura’s interpretation is partially based upon dramatic sculptural groups in terracotta, the closest executed being Niccolò dell’Arca’s emotional Lamentation in nearby Bologna. Tura, however, has infused his own elements, such as the incorporation of a slight figure of Christ, whose outstretched arms unify the composition.

This panel was at the top of the Roverella Polyptych.

The Pietà was a popular theme in northern Italy as well as north of the Alps, even before Michelangelo made his famous marble Pietà in Rome. Tura’s interpretation is partially based upon dramatic sculptural groups in terracotta, the closest executed being Niccolò dell’Arca’s emotional Lamentation in nearby Bologna. Tura, however, has infused his own elements, such as the incorporation of a slight figure of Christ, whose outstretched arms unify the composition.

Traditionally the painting was attributed to Piero della Francesca, while at the end of the 19th century to Francesco Cossa. Since 1926 it is generally accepted as a work of Tura. The assumption that the sitter is Borso d’Este was not confirmed. It seems to be an independent portrait, although the possibility that it is a fragment from a larger composition is also emerged.

This portrait of a youth is considered the sole survivor of Tura’s activity as a portrait painter at the Este court of Ferrara. Additionally, Tura has been attributed with the design of two medals of Duke Ercole I d’Este, his wife, Eleonora of Aragon, and their son Alfonso, as well as a portrait miniature of the ducchess.

Tense figures, tormented draperies, sombre colouring, skilled foreshortening are all typical of Tura’s work, which evinces the artist’s combined assimilation of Flemish pathos, Florentine monumentality and plasticity, and Mantegna’s illusionism.

Free from fear of archaism, fond of humanism, but never cowed by it, Ferrarese painters sometimes used gold backgrounds, though these had been long condemned as old fashioned. Tura’s St Christopher shows a sense for the extremes of modeling that reflects Ferrara’s proximity to Squarcione’s Paduan academy and Donatello’s studio in the same city.

There are seven paintings of Tura of dimension very similar which certainly belonged to one or two polyptychs. Two lost altarpieces can be taken into account: one in San Luca in Borgo at Ferrara and another in San Giacomo at Argenta. There are several proposals of the reconstruction of these altarpieces. According to one suggestions the San Luca polyptych probably had the Madonna (presently in Bergamo) in the centre, St Anthony of Padua (presently in the Mus�e du Louvre, Paris), St Dominic, St Sebastian (presently in Berlin), St Christopher (presently in Berlin) on the side panels.

There are four small panels of identical size in the National Gallery of Art in Washington which are thought to belonged to the eight paintings executed by Tura for a small triptych commissioned by the Duke Ercole I d’Este in 1475. The four paintings are St Francis, the Announcing Angel, the Virgin Announced and St Maurelio.

This work may have been a panel from a portable altar that included a St Maurelius with St George, the protector of Ferrara, today in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, and an Annunciation from the Colonna collection in Rome.

The Roverella Polyptych is considered as one of Tura’s most important work. Originally it was located in the church of San Giorgio fuori le Mura in Ferrara where it was partially destroyed by a bomb in 1709. It was commissioned by Lorenzo Roverella, bishop of Ferrara.

According to the most accepted version of reconstruction the Madonna Enthroned constituted the central panel, this fragment showing St George belonged to the left panel, while on the right a panel representing Niccolò Roverella with two saints was located. On top of the altarpiece there was a Pietà. Below, on the predella there were seven tondos four of which are lost.

This fragment was attributed to Francesco del Cossa for a long time, it was identified as the only remaining part of the left panel of the Roverella Polyptych only in 1940.

In 1469 the cover of the organ of the Cathedral in Ferrara was painted by Tura. The Annunciation was visible in the closed state of the organ, while in the open state the panel representing St George and the Dragon was shown. The cover of the organ was transferred to the Museum in 1735.

The organ frontal for the Cathedral must serve as an introduction to the painter, although he was about thirty-nine years old when it was finished and obviously a fully formed painter. The shutters were painted with tempera, although Tura seems frequently to have employed oils as well. They are emotionally charged, full of movement and intense expressionism. In the St George the frightened princess, placed close to the picture plane, moves swiftly to the left of the single canvas she occupies. Her fluttering, irregular draperies with decisive hills and valleys are carefully studied, but they do not follow the structure of her body or even her pose, becoming instead alive and rebelliously independent of the forms they hide.

Light is effectively rendered as an expressive device without becoming a particularly naturalistic component, striking here and there, helter-skelter, although a certain concentration on the left may be isolated. Highlights are also found on the right-hand edges of forms, especially in the canvas showing St George impaling the dragon. Color is equally antinaturalistic. The tight-fitting leather costume of the saint is outlined, pale maroon against a golden sky. His gray horse, ferociously participating in the confrontation, is accentuated by a calligraphic arrangement of thin red straps. There are strong echoes of Mantegna, perhaps in part filtered through Squarcione, in motives like the rendering of the winding trail with figures on the hill behind the princess and a tight application of paint, which permits abundant minuscule detail. Critics have called attention to connections with later Donatello, especially with his reliefs made for nearby Padua. These are difficult to isolate within the personal expressive idiom of the St George, except for the shared intensity in treating sacred figures and narratives.

There are seven paintings of Tura of dimension very similar which certainly belonged to one or two polyptychs. Two lost altarpieces can be taken into account: one in San Luca in Borgo at Ferrara and another in San Giacomo at Argenta. This painting probably belonged to the Argenta altarpiece.

The painting depicts St John the Evangelist on the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse. The saint is identified by his eagle, which rests on his arm with its wings outstretched, and by the book he is holding. He is thinking or resting rather than reading, leaning against a bare rock. The scene takes place in a desolate landscape of sharp crags which rise up from a deserted plain.

The style is characteristic of Ferrarese painting, which was influenced by Mantegna and Piero della Francesca. Mantegna’s influence encouraged Tura’s austerity, giving rise to a severe and angular style with hard metallic contours and a brilliant surface, typical features of the Ferrarese school.

Free from fear of archaism, fond of humanism, but never cowed by it, Ferrarese painters sometimes used gold backgrounds, though these had been long condemned as old fashioned. Tura’s St Sebastian shows a sense for the extremes of modeling that reflects Ferrara’s proximity to Squarcione’s Paduan academy and Donatello’s studio in the same city.

This panel belonged to a cycle representing the nine Muses, which was commissioned by the rulers of Ferrara, Lionello and Borso d’Este for the decoration of the ‘studiolo’ in the Palazzo di Belfiore near Ferrara. Five other panels from the cycle are in museums in Ferrara, Berlin, Budapest.

Terpsichore was one of the nine Muses of ancient Greece. She is the Muse of dancing and the dramatic chorus, and later of lyric poetry (and in even later versions, of flute playing).

The inscription confirms that this small work was intended for private worship. It takes its name from the signs of the zodiac in gold on the background. They are still legible on the left but have faded almost entirely on the right.

The inscription at the bottom: SVIGLIA EL TUO FIGLIO DOLCE MADRE PIA / PER FAR INFIN FELICE L’ALMA MIA.

The contemporary frame of the picture in the style of Donatello includes a tympanum embellished with the device of San Bernardino supported by two angels.

The Salone dei Mesi (Room of Months) in the Palazzo Schifanoia, one of the masterpieces of Italian palace architecture, was decorated with a series of allegorical frescoes symbolizing the months. The length of the room is 24 m, the width 11 m and the height 7,5 m. The frescoes are attributed to Cosm� Tura, Francesco del Cossa, Baldassare d’Este and Ercole de’ Roberti.

On the southern wall January and February, on the eastern wall March, April and May, on the north wall June, July, August and September, on the west wall October, November and December were represented. Due to negligence it was in a very bad state already in the 18th century. Today there remained only fragments of the frescoes on the southern and western walls, while those on the eastern wall and most on the northern are in relatively good condition. This means that the visitor can view the surviving allegories of seven months (March, April, May, June July, August and September).

In all allegories the episodes are arranged in a three-tiered, frieze-like manner; in the upper sphere, the sphere of mythology, each month and its planet are paralleled by their ancient divinity in a triumphal procession. The middle layer shows the signs of the zodiac, while below are rendered the courtly events appropriate to the particular time of year.

This view of the Salone dei Mesi in the Palazzo Schifanoia shows, from the left to the right, frescoes of the months of September, August, July, June, May, April, and May, respectively. The decoration was commissioned by Borso d’Este. The name Borso gave to this pleasure palace means “away with boredom.”

There are four small panels of identical size in the National Gallery of Art in Washington which are thought to belonged to the eight paintings executed by Tura for a small triptych commissioned by the Duke Ercole I d’Este in 1475. The four paintings are St Francis, the Announcing Angel, the Virgin Announced and St Maurelio.