_Francesco del Cossa_ (Ferrarese: about 1435-1485).
Cossa was a contemporary of Cosimo Tura (772), with whom
he exhibits close affinities of style. "But while Tura was
fantastic, and inclined to the lavish use of decoration,
Cossa, with severer views of his art, sought to give dignity
and grandeur to his figures, and kept ornamentation within its
proper bounds" (Official Catalogue). "It may be added that
Cossa, though 'severer' in one sense, viz. that he saw more
clearly and kept more strictly within the true limits of fine
art, had more amenity than Tura; his decorative instinct was
more refined, his sense of grace less crude. He was also a
sweeter, finer, colourist" (Monkhouse). Cossa worked at Ferrara
with other artists for Duke Borso, and among other works he
executed some of the frescoes for the Schifanoia Palace. These
have been copied by the Arundel Society. In 1470 Cossa removed
to Bologna, where his best works are to be seen. The finest
of them is the "Virgin and Child with St. Petronius" in the
Pinacoteca--"a work of singular grandeur."
"Our beautiful panel is, for its size, as characteristic and fine a
specimen of the master as exists. The painting throughout is of fine
quality, the modelling and expression of the head admirable, the colour
strong and fine, but soft withal, and the abundant detail executed
with great skill and patience, but kept in due subordination. The
strange background, with its fantastic erections, half architecture
half rock, is of less beauty, but equally characteristic of the
artist" (Monkhouse: _In the National Gallery_, p. 167). The picture,
once ascribed to Marco Zoppo, has been now recognised as the central
panel of an altar-piece by Cossa, of which the wings are in the Brera
at Milan, and the predella is in the Picture Gallery of the Vatican.
The Dominican represented has at various times been supposed to be
St. Dominic himself, St. Vincentius Ferrer, and St. Hyacinth. The
predella pictures are of scenes in the life of St. Hyacinth, who
therefore is probably the subject of our panel also. He was a member
of the Dominican Order (whose habit he wears), a Pole by birth, and a
missionary in Russia. St. Vincentius Ferrer was a Spaniard of Valencia,
who in 1374, at the age of 17, entered the Dominican Order, died in
1419, and was canonised in 1455.