COSTA, LORENZO. - Painter, b. in Ferrara around 1460, d. in Mantua on 3 May 1535. He was a pupil in his native city of Cosmè Tura, as the St. Sebastian in Dresden would demonstrate, if it is his work and not Cosmè's. Probably in 1483 he was in Bologna at the paint in the Palazzo Bentivoglio, later destroyed; between 1483 and 1490, still in Bologna, he decorated the chapel of the Bentivoglio in S. Giacomo Maggiore, following the manner of Ercole Roberti. In 1492 and 1497 he painted the altarpieces of S. Petronio and of S. Giovanni al Monte, in which his second manner appears, formed on that of Ercole Roberti himself, who had transformed his own, and in which the influence of Antonello and of Giambellino is also evident. In 1499 he was in Ferrara, working in the Cathedral; having returned to Bologna, he worked there until 1506, following Perugino and Francia in the paintings of the oratory of S. Cecilia. At the end of that year he went to Mantua, summoned by the Gonzaga to replace Mantegna.
The St. Sebastian of the Dresden gallery, according to Berenson a work by Tura and signed by C., has elements external traits drawn from Tura, but it does not possess his strength; it must therefore be admitted, at least, that C. finished the work of Cosmé.
The altarpiece of the Bentivoglio chapel in S. Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna (1488) likewise shows reminiscences of Tura: in the same chapel are the Triumph of Fame and the Triumph of Death. The Madonna enthroned between Sts. Sebastian, James, Jerome and George in S. Petronio in Bologna, of 1492, marks a great advance over the inexpressive paintings of the Bentivoglio chapel; perhaps C. had gone to Venice, as similarities with Venetian altarpieces suggest. This nobly expressive panel may be considered the master's masterpiece. In the picture in S. Giovanni in Monte, also in Bologna, representing The Madonna with Four Saints and Two Angels, the influence of Francia is instead visible; the figures take on sinuous forms as in Perugino, of whom some element is found again in the background of pillars receding in perspective at the sides of the throne. The Coronation of the Virgin, likewise in S. Giovanni in Monte (1501), has figures equally inspired by Umbrian models. Mention should also be made in Bologna, in the oratory of S. Cecilia, of the frescoes representing the Conversion of St. Valerian and St. Cecilia Distributing Alms (1504-1506). C. remained substantially an eclectic, wavering between Tura, Ercole Roberti, the Venetians, Perugino and Francia.
Bibliography6 works
Vincenzo Golzio