_Lorenzo Costa_ (Ferrarese: 1460-1535).
Lorenzo Costa was a pupil of Cosimo Tura, at Ferrara, but was
soon drawn away to Bologna, where he worked with Francia. The
friendship of these two men is a good instance of the unity
between the different arts in the Middle Ages. Thus the
workshop of Francia at Bologna consisted of two stories. In
the upper story, pictures were painted under the supervision
of Costa; whilst in the lower, gold and silver works were
executed, and coins stamped, under the direction of Francia.
Costa remained for twenty-three years at Bologna, where many
of his principal works still exist. The altar-piece in the
church of S. Giovanni in Monte is the most remarkable. In
1509, invited by the Marquis Francesco Gonzaga, whose wife
was Isabella d'Este, Costa fixed his abode in Mantua, where
he remained till his death. He depicted their court in an
allegorical composition, now in the Louvre. "Costa's style,"
says Sir F. Burton, "varied during his long career. His earlier
works bear signs of his filiation to Tura and Cossa. In later
productions we may trace more of the amenity of Umbrian art,
and finally the influence of his own pupil Francia. His best
merits are a gentle gravity and a sense of colour. Want of
force mars what is meant for grace."
This picture (which is signed, and dated 1505) should be compared
with the Perugino in the next room (288), for Lorenzo Costa has
been called "the Perugino of Ferrara," and works of his are in many
galleries wrongly attributed to Perugino. Every one will feel that
there is a grace and a sweetness here which recalls Perugino. Lorenzo,
too, has Perugino's fondness for a "purist" landscape (see 288); and
note the curious device, peculiar to the Ferrarese School, by which
he introduces it. The Madonna's throne is constructed in two parts,
so that between the base and the upper part a vacant space is left,
through which we look into the open air ("Thus saith the Lord, the
heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool"). One of Costa's
weaknesses may be observed in the figures of the standing saints.
"His figures are seldom planted firmly on the ground--a fault which
he shared with Francia. The ill-understood folds of their garments
obscure the form, and trail upon the ground in meaningless tags. This
insensibility on the part of Costa to one of the noblest means of
expression in art is remarkable, inasmuch as the works of Francesco
Cossa might have set him an example of draperies carefully studied,
true to fact, and often grandly disposed" (Burton).