COSTA, LORENZO. — Painter, born in Ferrara around 1460, died in Mantua on 3 May 1535. He was a pupil in his native city of Cosimo Tura, as the S. Sebastiano in Dresden would suggest, if it is indeed his work and not Tura’s. Probably in 1483 he was in Bologna at
paint in the Bentivoglio palace, later destroyed; between 1483 and 1490 he was still in Bologna decorating the Bentivoglio chapel in S. Giacomo Maggiore, following the manner of Ercole Roberti. In 1492 and 1497 he painted the altarpieces of S. Petronio and S. Giovanni al Monte, in which his second manner appears, formed under the same Ercole Roberti, who had transformed his own style, and also shows the influence of Antonello and Giovanni Bellini. In 1499 he was in Ferrara, working in the Cathedral; back in Bologna, he worked there until 1506, following in the paintings of the oratory of S. Cecilia the style of Perugino and Francia. At the end of that year he went to Mantua, called by the Gonzaga to replace Mantegna.
The S. Sebastiano in the gallery of Dresden, according to Berenson a work by Tura and signed by C., has external features taken from Tura, but lacks his strength; it must therefore be admitted, at least, that C. completed the work of Cosimo.
The altarpiece of the Bentivoglio chapel in S. Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna (1488) also shows memories of Tura: in the same chapel are the Triumph of Fame and the Triumph of Death. The Madonna in Majesty between the saints 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 masterpiece of the artist. In the painting 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 elements are found in the background of pilasters perspectivally receding on either side of the throne. The Coronation of the Virgin, also in S. Giovanni in Monte (1501), likewise has figures inspired by Umbrian models. Also to be remembered in Bologna, in the oratory of S. Cecilia, are the frescoes representing the Conversion of S. Seriano and S. Cecilia Distributing Alms (1504–1506).
C. remained essentially an eclectic, hesitant between Tura, Ercole Roberti, the Venetians, Perugino and Francia.