St Christopher
by TURA, Cosmè, Poplar panel, 73 x 30 cm
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.