Works by Cosimo Tura

Cosimo Tura, court painter to the Este in Ferrara, gave his figures an almost sculpted hardness and used bright, unreal colours that often make them look like metal or stone.

He gave nearly all his working life to the Este, decorating flags and a tournament helmet, designing furniture and clothes and drawing tapestry cartoons besides painting. A seated muse, perhaps Calliope, belongs to a series for the Belfiore studiolo, where he probably repainted figures Angelo Maccagnino had begun; who painted which muse is still debated. She sits on a throne of gilded dolphins set with red stones, under a green shell hung with beads.

In Body of Christ held by angels, two angels with open mouths prop up the dead Christ, his ribs and muscles as hard as carving. Nearly all the works below are religious, among them an Annunciation between Saint Francis and Saint Louis of Toulouse, each figure alone on a narrow panel. Most of his work was destroyed as the dukes of Ferrara declined in the late 1500s.

Sources: Wikipedia, National Gallery of Art, National Gallery, Kunsthistorisches Museum.