Background
Francesco del Cossa was born in 1436 in Ferrara, Italy. He was the son of a stonemason in Ferrara. Little is known about his early works, although it is known that he traveled outside of Ferrara in his late twenties or early thirties.
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Francesco Del Cossa
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Francesco del Cossa was an early Renaissance painter of the Ferrarese school who, through his seven years’ residence in Bologna, exercised a profound influence on the course of Bolognese painting. Cossa’s style is characterized by stiff, heavy drapery folds and a sharply linear rendering of complex surfaces.
Education
Probably a pupil of Cosimo Tura, he was influenced by the cool, geometric incisiveness of Andrea Mantegna and Piero Della Francesca.
Career
After completing the Schifanoia frescoes in 1470 for Duke Borso d'Este, he left Ferrara for Bologna when his complaint about the meager payment went unheeded. His major work in Bologna was the altarpiece, now disassembled, for the Griffoni Chapel in San Petronio. Cossa lived in Bologna until his death in 1478. The Schifanoia frescoes in the Sala dei Mesi consist of three tiers, centered around the theme of the 12 months of the year. The top level, a festive series of allegorical scenes, and the bottom, a montage of overlapping vignettes from the daily life of the Este court, are divided by a wide middle band containing astrological symbols. The complexity of the scheme and the feeling that the pageantry of the Italian Renaissance court has truly been captured are surpassed only by Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi at Mantua.
Achievements
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He was an outstanding Italian Renaissance painter of the School of Ferrara.
In the National Gallery of London there is a picture by him representing St. Vincent Ferrer. There is a fine profile portrait at Locko Park near Derby, said to represent Duke Ercole I of Ferrara. In the Dresden collection there is also an Annunciation that has, however, been attributed to Pollaiuolo.
Del Cossa features as one of the two protagonists in Ali Smith's novel How to Be Both, short-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.
Connections
References
- The painters of Ferrara Cosme Tura, Francesco del Cossa Ercole de' Roberti, and others (Master painters series).
- Francesco Del Cossa
- FRANCESCO DEL COSSA
