Cosmè Tura
Cosmê Tura (c. 1430 – 1495), also known as Il Cosmè or Cosimo Tura (Italian pronunciation: [koˈzmɛ tˈtuːra]), was an Italian early-Renaissance (or Quattrocento) painter and considered one of the founders of the School of Ferrara. He provided a great contribution to the Renaissance in Ferrara.
Cosmè Tura
Biography[edit]
Formation[edit]
Born in Ferrara, of humble origins, he was the son of a shoemaker named Domenico. There is no record of Cosmè's apprenticeship, which Vasari linked to the mysterious artist Galasso Galassi of Ferrara, an elusive and thinly documented figure, linked by friendship to Piero della Francesca.[1]
The first historical documents concerning him are dated to the years 1451–1452, when he decorated some objects for the court of the ruling Este family, Dukes of Ferrara, such as flags bearing coats of arms of the family destined for display at the Castle, or a helmet to be awarded as a tournament prize. Such works as these were a staple among the commissions received by an artist's workshop in the day and represented a major source of income. It may also be that Tura was able to find work among the court illuminators.
From mid-1452 to April 1456 no other documents attest to Tura's presence in Ferrara, which has led to the suggestion that he may have undertaken a journey, perhaps spending time in Venice or in Padua. In fact, numerous elements in his works seem to suggest a local stylistic influence from Padua in particular. It may have been that the Este themselves sponsored his apprenticeship journey, in the light of his precocious artistic skills. A notable feature of the scene in Padua was the thriving workshop of Francesco Squarcione, an important seedbed of talent in northern Italy, one from which emerged many masters, such as Carlo Crivelli, Michael Pacher and above all Andrea Mantegna, all of them contributors to diffusion of the Renaissance style.
It might have been from such an experience in Padua that Tura drew his taste for clear and sharp signs and for decorative exuberance, with citations of the antique, which he then took to extreme levels. Moreover, Squarcione served to introduce and disseminate some of the Tuscan innovations brought to Padua by Donatello, such as the use of linear perspective, the strong, squared lines of the forms and the skilful rendering of expression given to human figures.
Another fundamental master for Tura was Piero della Francesca, whom he may have met in person in Ferrara in 1458–1459. From Piero he borrowed a sense for the geometric spatial construction, a monumental spirit and a use of sharp and clear lighting, which he used above all in his backgrounds. A third fundamental element of input was the work of Flemish artists, also represented in Ferrara among the collections maintained by the Marquis. From these, Tura acquired a taste for minute observation of detail and for the use of oil paint to render the differing textures of materials depicted, from the glitter of gems to the soft reflections of velvet.[2]
Style[edit]
Tura's painting is endowed with great originality in the Italian panorama of the time, featuring lavishly decorated compositions and an almost sculptural plasticity of the figures, in an apparent realism that belongs more to fantasy rather than reality. The colors are bright and unreal, which often make the subjects seem like metal or stone, immersed in a tense and surreal atmosphere, with a dreamlike feeling. The experiences derived from the courtly art of international Gothic, aimed at celebration, are blended and transformed through the influence of the Paduan Renaissance, Piero della Francesca and Flemish painting. The meticulous search for details and impossible landscapes is found again later in painters of the Danube school.