Lorenzo Costa

Lorenzo Costa (1460 - May 3, 1535) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. Lorenzo Costa's Work soft and distant approaches recall the painting by Perugino of Filippo Lippi, Piero di Cosimo and Francesco Francia. The artist's balance in this kind of eclecticism, but not immune to maneuvered cadences, remained unchanged in his subsequent activity.

He was born at Ferrara, but moved to Bologna by his early twenties, and was probably influenced by the Bolognese School. However, many artists worked in both cities, and thus some consider him a product of the School of Ferrara.

Formed in a Ferrara environment, on the examples of Cosmè Tura and Ercole de 'Roberti, he went to live in Florence where he studied Florentine artists: here he became a disciple of Benozzo Gozzoli.

He moved to Bologna in 1483, witnessing the depletion of the Ferrara school and the contemporary rise of Bologna as an artistic center. He developed much of his work, under the influence of Ercole de 'Roberti. He painted the famous Bentivoglio Altarpiece and other frescoes on the walls of the Bentivoglio chapel in San Giacomo Maggiore. He was a great friend of Francesco Francia, who was much influenced by him.

He moved to Mantua in 1506 as a court painter, called by Isabella d'Este, where he approached the art of Mantegna. The first works carried out for the marquise of Mantua were Isabella d'Este in the realm of Armonia and the reign of God Como, on an unfinished drawing by Andrea Mantegna, who used to furnish the studio of Isabella.

In 1509 he moved to Mantua to become the court painter of Marquis Francesco Gonzaga and Isabella d'Este. For the latter's studiolo in the Ducal Palace, he painted the Allegory of Isabella d'Este's Coronation (now at the Louvre) and the Reign of Comus, two mythological paintings based on Mantegna's drawings.

He died at Mantua in 1535. His sons Ippolito and Girolamo were also painters, as was Girolamo's son, Lorenzo the Younger. Contemporaries who worked with or under him include Cosimo Tura, Dosso Dossi, Ludovico Mazzolino, Lorenzo Leonbruno, and Niccolò Pisano.

Main works:
Concert, 1485-95, National Gallery, London
Pala Bentivoglio, 1488, San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna
The dispatch of the Argonauts 1484 - 1490 Museo degli Eremitani, Padua
San Sebastiano, 1490-91, Uffizi, Florence
San Petronio, 1490, San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna
Portrait of John II Bentivoglio, 1490-92, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Madonna and Saints, 1492, Basilica of San Petronio, Bologna
Adoration of the Magi, 1499, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Coronation of the Virgin, 1501, church of San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna
Madonna with Child and Saint Francis, Pinacoteca Civica, Forlì
Sposalizio della Vergine, 1505, National Picture Gallery, Bologna
Isabella d'Este in the Kingdom of Armonia, 1506, Louvre, Paris
Kingdom of Como, 1511, Louvre, Paris
Madonna on Throne and Saints, 1525, Basilica of Sant'Andrea, Mantua
Portrait of ladies, Hampton Court, London
San Sebastian, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
Portrait of Federico Gonzaga, Collection Clary-Aldringen, Teplice
Saint John the Evangelist, Accademia Carrara, Bergamo.
https://hisour.com/artist/lorenzo-costa/