Ferrarese Painting about 1450: Some New Arguments

Author(s): Miklos Boskovits

Source: The Burlington Magazine , Jun., 1978, Vol. 120, No. 903, Special Issue Devoted to
the Italian Quattrocento (Jun., 1978), pp. 370+372-385
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 THE INTENDED SETTING OF MANTEGNA'S 'TRIUMPH OF CAESAR', 'BATTLE OF THE SEA GODS AND BACCHANALS'

with a Wine Vat to around I47549 and the Bacchanal with Sea Gods and the Bacchanals - or copies of them - were housed
Silenus to 'slightly later'.50 It now looks as though the together in the Palazzo Santacroce in Rome in the seven-
Bacchanals too should be dated to 1486-88. The writer has, teenth century, and were doubtless together before then.51
moreover, recently argued that many of the sculptural It is interesting to note that works derived from these models
models employed for the Triumph of Cesar, the Battle of the were originally designed to go together as well.

51 M. VICKERS: ' "The Palazzo Santacroce Sketchbook"; a new source for

49lbid., p. 182. Andrea Mantegna's "Triumph of Caesar", "Bacchanals" and "Battle of the
5o Ibid., p.I86. Sea Gods",' THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, CXiii [1976], pp.823-34-

MIKLOS BOSKOVITS

Ferrarese Painting about 1450:

order
THE sudden and prodigious flourishing of to make
studies itFerrarese
on habitable also du
painting of the early RenaissanceThe decoration
which occurred of the study its
roughly
towards the end of 1447; shortly
between 193o and 1960, has been followed by a long period
pictures
of hibernation, persisting until our own day.to
Thebeproduct
paintedofhad been
thirty years of intensive research,1 of course, could not be been cho
and Angelo da Siena had
immediately digested. However, as Two
theyears later
silence of at least two pain
students
studiolo
continues,2 the suspicion arises that, sincewere seen Quat-
Ferrarese already com
lodging.3
trocento pictures are limited in number Angelo
and rather di Pietro, also
thoroughly
kepthave
discussed in critical literature, they working on these
lost their paintings
appeal
death
for critics. It is understandable, after all, in 1451,4
that butprefer
students his own deat
finishing
to concentrate their interest on fields with more thepossibility
series which
of was co
making discoveries, and one cannot between 1459 and 1463
but acknowledge the by Cosm
the decoration was
diminution of interest in the production of remembered with admiration
one period, or and its
example
the rising enthusiasm for the art of inspired Still,
another. imitations.6 From after 1483, however,
as collateral
when
research continues to bear fruit, it Venetianto
seems troops
me set that
Belfiorewe
on fire,
are we have no notice
about the
today nearer to the solution of certain studiolo's pictures,
problems and some scholars firmly
of Ferrarese
Renaissance painting than a couple believe
ofthat they were ago
decades destroyed
and on that
that occasion.7 Others
it is now possible to complete the number of pictures dealt
with in the context of the 'officinaferrarese'.
The most famous and most frequently cited example of
Leonello d'Este's patronage of the arts
3 Ciriaco is
d'Ancona's the
comment decoration
on these pictures, representing theof
Muses Clio
and Melpomene,
his studiolo in the Belfiore Palace. has recently been reprinted
Erected justwith a good translation and
outside
annotations by M. BAXANDALL ('Guarino, Pisanello and Michael Chrysoloras',
Ferrara, this appears to have been
Journal ofthe favourite
the Warburg place
and Courtauld Institutes, XXVIII of
[1965], pp.187 ff.).
residence of the marchese, who built a November
4 On 9th series ofreceived
a mason rooms there
payment for in
having constructed a
fireplace and a chimney in a room of the Belfiore palace, occupied at that time
by 'Angelo depintore del S.e per stare in quella a lavorare le tavole che lui fa per lo
studio'; see G. CAMPORI: 'I pittori degli Estensi nel secolo XV', Atti e memorie
delle RR, Deputazioni di Storia Patria per le province di Modena e Parma, 3rd Ser.,
III/I [I8851, PP.535 if.
I In spite of A. VENTURI'S and some other scholars' fundamental studies into the
5 Documents mention payments made to Tura for his work on the decora-
history of early Renaissance painting in Ferrara, I do not think it unfair to
say that the most fruitful period of research in this field began at about 1930,tion of the studiolo from 3 1st October 1459 to 1463; see CAMPORI, op. cit., p.548.
when, among others, works like M. SALMI'S 'La miniatura emiliana' (in Tesori 4 On LUDOVICO CARBONE's enthusiastic comment concerning the studiolo's
delle biblioteche d'Italia. Emilia - Romagna, ed. by D. FAVA, Milan [1932], pictures see A. LAZZARI: 'I1 Barco di L. Carbone', Atti e memorie della Deputa-
pp.267-374), R. LONGHI'S Officina ferrarese (Rome [1934]), 'Ampliamenti zioneferrarese di Storia Patria, XXIV [1919], P.34 and M. BAXANDALL, op. Cit.,
p.188. No Muses cycle is known from the time before the execution of the
dell'Officina ferrarese' (Supplement to La Critica d'Arte, IV [ 194o], pp. I-40) and
one in Belfiore. About 1460, however, a room was decorated with images
'Nuovi ampliamenti' (in the 2nd edition of the Officina, Florence [1956],
pp.I75-95), s. ORTOLANI'S Cosmi Tura, Francesco del Cossa, Ercole de' Roberti of the Muses in the Badia of Fiesole by order of Cosimo de' Medici (see
A. CHASTEL: Art et humanisme h Florence au temps de Laurent le Magnifique, Paris
(Milan [I941]), E. RUHMER'S Tura. Paintings and Drawings (London [1958]),
[1959], p.257), and ten years later a tempietto delle muse was prepared in the
M. SALMI'S Pittura e miniatura a Ferrara nel pritnmo Rinascimento (Milan [1961]) were
published. Urbino Ducal palace (see P. ROTONDI: Manifestazioni di paganesimo umanistico
2 For some recent publications summarizing the results of earlier studies on nella civiltd urbinate del Rinascimento, Urbino [1948]); the first of which possibly,
Ferrarese painting see P. BIANCONI's Tutta la pittura di Cosmi Tura (Milan [ 1963]) the second almost certainly under the influence of the studiolo in Ferrara.
or R. MOLAJOLI'S L'opera completa di Cosmh Tura e i grandi ferraresi del suo tempo 7 SO E. RUHMER (op. cit., PP.53, 80, I72), whose opinion seems to be shared
(Milan [1974]). Some original ideas but very questionable conclusions are by M. BAXANDALL (Giotto and the Orators, Oxford [1971], p.89). It must be
contained, on the other hand, in: E. GUIDONI - A. MARINO: 'Cosmus pictor' remembered, however, that the fire of 1483 did not damage the entire building.
(Storia dell'arte, I [1969], pp.388-416). In fact, in 1497 Sabadino degli Arienti could still see late Trecento frescoes,

370

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16. Crucifixion, here attributed to Cosmb Tura. (Formerly Collection F. M. Perkins, Lastra a Signa, Florence).

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 FERRARESE PAINTING ABOUT 1450: SOME NEW ARGUMENTS

Thanks to
less pessimistically try to recognize the paintings inhisquestion
discovery we are able now not only to imagine
what kind oforigin:
in a series of allegorical representations of Ferrarese pictures Leonello wanted to see on the walls
the Venus or Spring in the National Gallery in but
of his study, London
also to identify at least one of them. In fact
(No.3o70), the Autumn or Allegory of Octoberthe ininscription Guarino suggested to the marchese for the
the Gemailde-
galerie in Berlin-Dahlem (No.I 5A), two Virtuesimage of orThalia can still be seen on the panel now in Buda-
Season-
pest,the
Allegories in the Strozzi collection in Florence, usually believed in
Charity to be a representation of Ceres (Fig.
I8)12the
the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan (No.597), Iconographically,
Ceres or too, the Budapest picture cor-
Summer in the Budapest Museum of Fine responds
Arts (No.44)
to Guarino's
and characterization of Thalia, and as it
bearssame
the two fMusic-making angels or AMuses in the the emblems
Museum of Duke Borso and was executed by a
painter,
(Nos. 1143, I44).8 Both the painters (except for Michele
No.44 in Pannonio,
the who died about the same time as
Budapest Museum, signed by Michele Pannonio)the decoration
and of sub-
the studiolo was completed,l3 it is virtually
certain that
ject-matter of these panels are highly speculative the their
and panel did actually belong to the Belfiore
alleged provenance from Belfiore is based on mere
cycle.'4 con-
Images of other muses have been identified among
jecture. However, it seems to me that recentthe above-mentioned
research about paintings by Dr Baxandall and, more
recently, by Anna
the studiolo's programme offers a new possibility Eorsi; both of whom consider them to
to dis-
entangle the problems involved. have been destined, at least in part, for buildings other than
Belfiore.15
According to Ciriaco d'Ancona and Lodovico Carbone,
both of whom saw the pictures in question and Is then
knewPannonio's
oneThalia
or the only remnant of that famous
more of the artists responsible for them, Leonello's study
Muses cycle? Before formulating an answer, let us forget for
was conceived to be a sacrarium of the Muses.9 Moreover, a moment the question of the subject-matter and try to
Carbone affirms that with the exception of two figures, determine instead the possible appurtenance of the single
painted by Maccagnino, the images of the Muses hanging pictures discussed so far to one series. From this point of
there were by Cosme Tura. This is surely inaccurate because, view the two Enthroned Women of the Strozzi collection,
as we shall see, at least one more master must have parti- together with those depicted in the images of the National
cipated in the execution and because Angelo, who already in Gallery and of the Poldi Pezzoli Museum (Figs. 17, 20) would
1449 completed two of his pictures, in 1452 is still recorded appear the most suitable for being components of the same
as working on the decoration of the studiolo. Nevertheless I cycle as the Budapest Thalia: their dimensions are similar,
would not dismiss as completely false Carbone's account. and also similar is the way the protagonists are placed in
A collector himself, he was interested enough in painting to the composition, as well as the eye level from which the
be at least partially reliable.'0 What we can accept from his
report is, I suppose, that most of the studiolo's pictures were
executed by Maccagnino and Tura, and that the share of
this latter artist was bigger than that of his colleague. Leonello also consulted other experts of Greco-Roman mythology. One of
By pointing out that a letter on the characteristics of the these might have been Theodore Gaza who, as his verses composed on two of
Muses, sent by Guarino da Verona to Leonello d'Este, was Maccagnino's Muses show, was certainly much interested in the studiolo's
probably the source of the programme of that decoration, pictures (cfr. LAZZARI, op. Cit., PP.35-37).
12 'Plantandi leges per me novere coloni' is the very same text suggested for Thalia's
Michael Baxandall supplied highly important additional image in Guarino's letter. In the Budapest picture the caption in Latin
information to the already known contemporary accounts.11 is completed by the translation in Greek.
"3 The exact date of Pannonio's death is unknown. Documents attest that
he received payments for the decoration of the Certosa of Ferrara between
14i6 and 1464 (cfr. c. 1. ROSENBERG: 'Per il bene di .. . nostra cipta', Renaissance
Quarterly, XXIX [1976], p.339 n.24), but (died not later than 1464 (cfr.
CAMPORI, op. cit., p.541).
14 The presence of Borso's emblems, i.e. the so-called paraduro and the lilies,
apparently in fair condition, in the palace (see W. L. GUNDERSHEIMER: Art and witness that the picture was painted for the Duke. One cannot exclude in
Life at the Court of Ercole d'Este, Geneva [1972], pp.23, 68). Unfortunately, theory that instead of Belfiore it was intended to decorate some other of the
Sabadino's description of Belfiore's interior is not detailed enough, but it is numerous Estean residences. However it seems that during the fifteenth
quite possible that he intended to include also our Muses cycle among the century only a few of them were important enough to be furnished with expen-
morali et amorosi exempli he reports to have seen painted there. sive panel paintings (cf. GUNDERSiTEIMER, op. cit., p. 17 f.), and it is unlikely that
8 Already J. A. CROWE and G. B. CAVALCASELLE (A History of Painting in North a rare subject such as that of the Muses would have been painted for Borso
Italy, London Vol.i [1871], p.518) recognized that the pictures in London mnore than once. Federigo da Montefeltro, for example, commissioned during
(at that time in the Layard collection in Venice), Berlin (at that time in the his lifetime the decoration of various studies, but all according to different
Costabili collection in Ferrara) and Florence (these, too, formerly in the programmes: two in his Urbino palace dedicated to Famous Men and to
Costabili collection) were originally elements of a single series. Subsequently Apollo and the Muses respectively (see p. ROTONDI in Restauri nelle Marche,
other scholars added further panels to this group which has been supposed by Urbino [1973], PP.56-6o02 and R. DUBOS: Giovanni Santi peintre et chroniqueur,
G. GOMBOSI ('Pannoniai Mihily 6s a Renaissance kczdetei Ferrarfiban' Az4 Bordeaux [1971], pp.127 ff.) and one, in Gubbio. to Allegories of the Liberal
Orszigos M. Szipnmlviszeti Mitzeum KIleminyei, VI [1929-30], pp.91 ff.) and Arts (cfr. c. II. CLOUGH: "Federigo da Montefeltro's private study in his Palace
others to have been painted for Belfiore. of Gubbio', Apollo, LXXXVI [g967], pp.278-87.
9 L. CARBONE (see above note 6) reports that in the Bclfiore palace 'Borsius " M. BAXANDALL (op. cit. [19653, pp.188-89 n.13), in addition to the Budapest
pulcherrimum illud Musarum studiumn collocavit quod tamen a Leonello, Alusarum Thalia, identified also the so-called Autumn of Berlin as Polyhymnia, Muse of
amatore, coeptumfuerit.' agriculture, the so-called Caritas in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum as Terpsichore,
10 On Carbone as a connoisseur and collector of art see L. FRATI: 'Di Lodovico Muse of the dance, and the two Music-making figures in Budapest as Mel-
Carbone e delle sue opere', Atti e mnemorie della Deputazione ferrarese di Storia pomene (the one with lute) and Euterpe (the one with pipe), muses of poetry
Patria, XX [19Io], pp.57 ff. and singing. All of Dr Baxandall's identifications have been accepted by A.
"' See above note 3. Guarino's was obviously not a definitive programme EORSI ('Lo studiolo di Lionello d'Este e il programma di Guarino da Verona',
for the studiolo's decoration: in fact, as R. SABBADINI has pointed out ('Epistolario Acta Historiae Artium Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, XXI [19751], PP.5-52),
di Guarino Veronese', Miscellanea di Storia Veneta, 3rd Ser., XIV [1919], p.4o6), who furthermore suggested that the London 'Venus' was intended to represent
while Maccagnino's Clio corresponded perfectly to the humanist's suggestions, Erato, the figure shown in profile in the Strozzi collection Urania, and the
his Melpomene did not. Most probably for establishing the programme, other Allegory of the same collection Erato.

373

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 FERRARESE PAINTING ABOUT 1450: SOME NEW ARGUMENTS

examination,
onlooker is supposed to observe the pictures. It seemsthe real
toextent
me of the intervention to which
more difficult to place the Berlin panel theseand
detailsthe Music-
are due. I think they are alterations done some-
making Women in the Budapest Museum time in the
towardssame series.
the end of the sixteenth century, and perhaps
The latter, although they correspond not tosothe
muchtraditional
in order to modernize the artistic effect, as to
iconography of the Muses Melpomene andchangeEuterpe,
the image's original
do not meaning. By disguising a too
agree either with Guarino's prescription or with Turesque
fantastic-looking Ciriaco's head and, of course, by removing
report on the Melpomene painted by inscriptions
Maccagnino relative for
to her the
identity and adding a new inscrip-
studiolo. Showing figures standing instead of it
tion,21 sitting, in half
was not difficult to transform the muse Terpsychore
profile and somewhat smaller in proportioninto an acceptable
than the member
other of the community of Christian
panels, they certainly do not fit well in virtues.
the same sequence,16
and the balance of probability is, in fact, Thethat
restorer,
none therefore,
of the probably did not do more than
three pictures with standing figures formed
what seemed part
to himof the necessary, allowing us to recog-
strictly
Belfiore Muses cycle. nize the original Turesque characters of large areas of the
Let us now examine the question of authorship.
painting. But who couldThe
have realized these bright, accur-
Budapest Thalia, as we have seen, is ately
signed,17 and this
polished surfaces, thecloak which adheres as if soaked,
Enthroned W'Voman of the National Gallery to the (whose
knees of the Muse, the nervous, staccato rhythm of the
identity
remains for me a mystery)is is generally children's dance and
accepted onthethe
characteristic physiognomic types
basis of its style as an autograph Tura.19 and expressions
Disputed if not Cosme himself? His paternity,
at length,
on the other hand, is the attribution of
recognized
the Terpsychore-
already some ioo years ago by Cavalcaselle (but
Carita in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum: some scholars consider forgotten by most later critics) appears to me so obvious as
it a product from the school, others from the workshop of to render long arguing superfluous, and I hope the repro-
ductions I can adduce here will be sufficient to make my
Cosme, while still others assert it was painted at least in part
by the artist himself.20 Close examination leaves no doubt point clear.
that the actual pictorial surface is not the work of a single A much harder question is that concerning the remaining
two muses, now in the Strozzi collection.22 If we could trust
hand. The gestures and the typology of the putti (Figs.21-23),
Carbone's well-informed report, we might almost auto-
or the architecture of the throne clearly belong to Tura's
matically label them with Maccagnino's name as that of the
repertory, while the sugary tenderness of the protagonist's
vaguely Titianesque face, her hairstyle, and the velvety second major contributor to the studiolo's decoration. Such an
attribution
texture of the drapery covering her throne, reveals a quite would not be contradicted either by the probable
date of the pictures, or by what can be made out of the
different taste and a different time of execution. It would be
hazardous to determine, without the help of an x-ray sources and historical circumstances concerning Angelo da
Siena's art.23 So far, however, since no authenticated paint-

16 A detailed modern inquiry on profane allegorical cycles in Medieval and

Renaissance Italy is missing, but on the basis of dozens of such cycles I happen
to know I venture to say that they do represent either standing or sitting
personages, but never mix the two types. 21 M. BAXANDALL (op. cit., [1965], p.88-89 n.13) has suggested for the first
17 Recently A. E6RSI (op. cit., p.52 n.124) put forward objections against the time that the inscription on the base of the throne ('Ex Deo est Caritas et ips
authenticity of Pannonio's signature, but her arguments do not seem to me Deus est') was a later addition. In fact, the letters in question do not follow
convincing. For example the different lettering of Thalia's inscription and the perspective of the facets of the pedestal of the throne, an inaccuracy hardl
of the artist's signature is quite normal as the former was intended to imitate conceivable in Tura's workshop. In my opinion the inscription most probably
an epigraph and the latter handwriting (cf. z. WAZBINSKI: 'Le cartellino', dates back to the same time of the repainting of the figure's head, i.e. to th
Pantheon, XXI [1963], PP-278-83). The circumstance that Pannonio's is the late sixteenth century.
only signed picture of the series appears to be easy to explain, too, by the fact 22 Stated by CROWE and CAVALCASELLE (Op. Cit. [1871], p.518 N.2) to be 'much
that the other panels have been cut. The Budapest Thalia, which still main- injured' but autograph works by Tura, they have been attributed by A.
tains nearly its original dimensions (1.365 by o.82 m.), probably was kept VENTURI first ('L'arte a Ferrara nel periodo di Borso d'Este', Rivista storica
separately from the others after the dismantling of the studiolo's decoration, and italiana, II [1885, p.70o8) to Michele Pannonio and later (Storia dell'art
I see no reason to suppose, as Dr E6rsi does, that it was one of the pictures italiana, Vol.VII/3, Milan [1914], P-570) to an unknown follower of Tura, an
Baruffaldi saw early in the eighteenth century in the Sala di S. Officio in attribution suggested also by F. HARCK ('Verzeichnis der Werke des Cosm
Ferrara and attributed to Tura (for these latter cf. M. DAVIES: National Gallery Tura', Jahrbuch der kdnigl. preuss. Kunstsammlungen, IX [1888], p.38). G
Catalogues. The Earlier Italian Schools, London [1961], pp.518-2I). In any case GOMBOSI ('A Ferrarese Pupil of Piero della Francesca', THE BURLINGTON
it would be hard to understand the reason for forging the name of a nearly MAGAZINE, LXII [19331, p.7I f.) was the first to attribute the two panels to
unknown artist, as Michele was in 1857 (i.e. at the time of the sale of the Maccagnino, and this suggestion has been accepted also by LONGHI (op. ci
Galleria di Monte di Pieth in Rome, where it appears mentioned for the [1934], PP-24, 208) who thought, however, they were at least in part designed
first time), on a picture which could have been better sold as Tura's, or some by Tura, by ORTOLANI (op. cit., p.23 iff,) SALMI (op. Cit. [19571, P-14 ff.) an
other well-known Ferrarese artist's. others. According to E. RUHMER (op. cit., p.18 if.) the figure looking toward th
is Most probably Dr E6rsi is right in assuming that this is a Muse, but herspectator was painted in part by Tura, while the other is 'evidently an early
identification of the figure as Erato fails to convince me. work by Francesco del Cossa'.
1f Cf. RUHMER, op. Cit., pp.20 ff. and 172. To my mind the two Strozzi panels were both conceived and executed by
20 The so-called 'Charity' of the Poldi Pezzoli Museum has been attributed the
to same artist - be he or not identical with Angelo Maccagnino - who was
also responsible for the so-called 'Autumn' in Berlin and for the Music-makin
Tura by CROWE and CAVALCASELLE (Geschichte der italienischen Malerei, Leipzig
figures in Budapest.
[1874], Vol.V, p.557), to his workshop with participation of the master himself
by B. BERENSON (Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford [1932], p.581),23toThe two Budapest panels, attributed by some at least partially to Francesc
del Cossa (T. BORENIUS in J. A. CROWE - G. B. CAVALCASELLE: History of Painting
his school by ORTOLANI (op. cit., p.25), SALMI (Cosm Tura, Milan [1957], p.I8)
in North Italy, London [1912], Vol.II, p.234 and E. RUHMER: Francesco del Cossa,
and others. LONGHI (op. cit., [I956], p.I9) and F. RUSSOLI (La Pinacoteca Poldi
Pezzoli, Milan [19551, p.224) considered it executed in Tura's workshop Munich
but [1959], p.66 f.), by others to Maccagnino (GOMBOSI, op. cit. [I933]
under the influence of Rogier van der Weyden, while E. RUHMER (op. Cit., p.77); H. BEENKEN: ('Angelo del Maccagnino und das Studio von Belfiore'
p.18) thinks it painted by a follower of Rogier's and subsequently redone, in
Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen, LXI [1940], pp. 47-62, and LONGHI
the lower half, by Tura himself. op. cit., [1956], p.I78) or to Galasso (VENTURI, op. Cit. [19141, P-496 ff.,

374

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17. A Muse, by Cosm Tura. (National Gallery, London). 18. Thalia, by Michele Pannonio. (Sz'pmtiv'szeti
MUi'zeum, Budapest).

19. Madonna with Child and Saints, by Cosmb Tura. (Musde 20. Terpsychore, here attributed to Cosmb Tura. (Museo Poldi
Fesch, Ajaccio). Pezzoli, Milan).

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 21. Detail from St Christopher, by 22. Detail from Terpsy- 23. Detail from Madonna and Child
Cosme Tura. (Gemaldegalerie, chore illustrated in
illustrated in Fig..9-
Berlin-Dahlem). Fig.2o.

25. Detail from Cruci-

fixion, by Cosme
Tura. (Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cam-
bridge).

24. St Sebastian, by Cosmb Tura. (Gemialde- 26. Detail from Crucifixion illustrated in
galerie, Berlin-Dahlem). Fig.i6.

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 FERRARESE PAINTING ABOUT 1450: SOME NEW ARGUMENTS

butthe
ing by him is known to us and since even elements like theof
number facial type of the Madonna, more
those that one can tentatively refer to his sharply
hand designed
is limited tomore dreamy and remote than in
and still
the Allegorical figures in Florence, Berlin24 Tura'sand
relatively early paintings, her long, stiff, crooked
Budapest,
any reconstruction of Maccagnino's &auvre fingers and her draperies
remains a mere breaking in sharp, angular folds, or
conjecture.25 details such as the way the veil covers her hair and the
But let us then turn back now to Cosm Tura, whose throne is decorated by strange, enigmatic signs, suggest that
chronology requires revision after the reintegration of a it cannot have been painted before about 1470. Another
new early work in his catalogue. When accepted as a question to be raised concerns the Madonna with Child and
partially repainted Tura autograph from about I46o, the Saints in the Ajaccio Museum (Figs. 19, 23), usually considered
Poldi Pezzoli panel, together with her companion in the one of Tura's latest works,27 whose figures appear to be very
National Gallery, London, causes doubts about the alleged closely akin to the muses in London and Milan. The folds of
early date of some other pictures, like the Pratt Madonna of drapery which flow over bodies like trailers of a tropical
the Washington National Gallery.26 To be sure the motive plant, the dominance of dark, livid tones in the chromatic
of the garland enframing the busts of the Virgin and the effect and the immersed, almost ecstatic expressions have
angel of the Annunciation is typically late Gothic in taste, much more in common with the Belfiore muses than, say,
with the Roverella altar-piece or the luminous St Anthony of
the Modena Gallery, and the dramatic vitality and impul-
LONGHI, Op. Cit. [1934], p.25 f., SALMI, Op. Cit. [1961], P.15 f.), might be, together
siveness of gestures recalls not only Tura's early pictures, but
with the frontally represented figure of the Strozzi collection, the earlier com- even aspects of the art of his predecessor, Michele Pannonio.
ponents of the group. The other Strozzi picture, correctly identified, I think, In any case, the Ajaccio altar-piece, executed probably
with the Muse Urania by Dr E6rsi (op. cit., p.42), and the Berlin one, both
showing influence of Piero della Francesca as well as that of Rogier, date still in the I450's, reveals an artist already in possession of
probably somewhat later, but, as more than one feature suggest (costume and his pictorial idiom and, judging from the elaborate anti-
hair style of the figures, architectural structure of the throne), the whole series quizing architectural framework, already familiar with
was probably executed within the span of the decade 1446-56, i.e. at the time
of Maccagnino's Ferrarese activity.
Donatello's Padua altar and Mantegna's frescoes in the
As to the character of his art, suppositions can be made on the ground that Ovetari chapel. It is another, and until now practically
he was of Sienese origin and belonged to the generation of Sassetta, Pietro di unknown, panel that can reveal something, I believe, about
Giovanni Ambrosi, Giovanni di Paolo and Sano di Pietro. This is, of course,
not much to go on, but the image will appear less hazy if one remembers the very origin of Cosme's art (Figs.I6, 26, 27, 31). Given its
that our painter was, as Ciriaco d'Ancona affirms, a pupil or, at least, admirer relatively large proportions and the fact that during its
of Rogier van der Weyden, and that during his stay in Umbria (in 1439 he situation, roughly half a century ago, at a dealer's in Flor-
was jailed for murder at Norcia) he might have had occasion to study the
works done by Fra Angelico, Domenico Veneziano and Piero della Francesca ence, and subsequently in the collection of the distinguished
in that region. That a pictorial style like that of the Strozzi Muses could grow art critic F. Mason Perkins, several students of Renaissance
out of such ingredients remains a conjecture, but in any case not an unlikely painting must have seen it. Accordingly, I find it hard to
one.

4 For the opinions of critics concerning the Berlin panel, attributed by some
explain why this remarkable work did not find its way into
the specialized
to Francesco del Cossa, by others to Maccagnino or Galasso, literature.28
see E. RUHMER, Certainly its state of conservation
op. cit. [X959], p.68 ff. As to the still mythical Galasso,- there
as one is
canno
distinctly see
sufficienton the old photographs - must not
ground either to refer this picture to him, or to reject definitively his paternity.
be good, and one may even imagine that its crudely realistic
The upholder of the attribution to Galasso di Matteo Piva must well keep in
mind, however, that this master, made famous by the short vision biography
made some onlookers
Vasari ill at ease. But still the painting's
rarity
dedicated to him, never appears in Ferrarese documents andfor
except high quality
the yearsmust have drawn the attention of
1450-53, and so far as one can see his later career took place mostly in Bologna.
critics. The composition - Christ on the Cross, flanked not
It is in this city, indeed, that he is mentioned in 1455 as juvenis ingeniosus,
only by di
where he signed a fresco in 1462 in the church of S. Apollonia mourners but also by two terraced buildings on
Mezzaratta,
and where he died in 1488. In all probability he was too which
youngtheand
Virgin and the angel of the Annunciation appear
inexperi-
enced at the time of his stay in Ferrara to be entrusted with the execution of
- is very rare, and the staging of the principal scene, though
important and expensive panel paintings for the Ducal palace. In any case if
apparently
the Strozzi Muses really come from Belfiore and are, as I firmly static,
believe, byisthe
animated by an atmosphere of inner
same hand as the Berlin and Budapest panels, one cantension and tormented
confidently excludegrief. The first look already reveals
Galasso's authorship, it being hardly conceivable that no document or other
peculiarities of Tura's art, but also a few not quite successful
source would recall them, or mention this artist's activity in that palace.
25 Beside the above-mentioned five Allegorical figures which, at least hypo-
thetically, can be attributed to Maccagnino, only a very few pictures have
been ascribed to this artist, none of which would seem to me work by the same
hand. The St Jerome in prayer in a private collection, referred to the artist by
27 Though
LONGHI (op. cit. [1956], p.177), has been recently recognized as considered
the productby most
ofstudents a late work, close stylistic affinities of
an anonymous Ferrarese painter, author also of other thepanels
Ajaccio representing
canvas (Musee Fesch, No.127) with the London Muse, rightly
scenes from the life of the same Saint (cfr. F. BISOGNI: 'Contributo
pointed per (op.
out by RUHMER unCit. [1958], pp.20, I71), suggest that it was painted
problema ferrarese', Paragone, XXVII [1972], No.265, not
pp.69-79).
later than In a Virgin
in the early i46o's.
28 Longhi,
of Humility with angels, similarly given to Maccagnino by The only mention
LombardI know of the Perkins Crucifixion in the critical literature
and
Paduan characteristics were recognized by SALMI ('Arte e cultura
has been made by G.artistica
PALUMBO (Collezione Federico Mason Perkins, Assisi [19731],
p.9o and
nella pittura del primo Rinascimento a Ferrara', Rinascimento, IXFig.7o), who illustrated
[ 1958], p. 134) the picture as a work by a follower of Tura's
but I think it is a work by Benedetto Bembo, as Carlo He
Volpe suggests
also cited to
(p.7I) the me. of the picture's former owner, according to
opinion
whom in
A third among Longhi's attributions, the young woman it was done byin
profile an the
anonymous follower of Francesco del Cossa. Un-
Correr Museum of Venice has been accepted with some doubt
fortunately theby SALMI
catalogue gives no measurements for the Crucifixion, which
(ibid.). To my mind it is a Venetian work of the later Quattrocento, aslost
seems to have been well as the only point of reference in this respect
in I944;
the Madonna No.2193 of the same Museum, attributed to the
remains Maccagnino bydescribed the picture as piuttosto grande. Surely it
fact that Perkins
Salmi. was known to several art historians, either in the original, or from photographs.
2 No.827 (Kress collection). Most critics agree in dating this panel in the
A photo in the Fototeca of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, classified
as 'School of Tura', bears a note, according to which, before coming to Villa
145o's; see the critical survey given by E. RUHMER (op. Cit. [1958], p.I73) who,
more correctly in my opinion, dates the painting around the late I46o's Sassoforte
or near Lastra a Signa (which housed part of Perkins's collections),
the early 1470's. the picture used to belong to the Florentine dealer Salvadori.

377

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 FERRARESE PAINTING ABOUT I 450: SOME NEW ARGUMENTS

solutions can be noted and, as no art historian willalready

Tura was fail to a painter esteemed enou
observe, the lack of that spontaneous virtuoso elegance
assess thatof a colleague with good repu
the work
often distinguishes Tura's autograph works, somesome of them
twenty years of activity to his credit.3
might be induced to believe that this is only a follower's
he must have chosen his way in art, passed t
product, preserving some reflections of theticeship,
master'sformulated
style. his proper ideals and cre
his own.
There is no trace, however, of the dull flatness Critics now generally consider
and poverty
of pictorial surface typical of the imitator's Squarcione's, 33 and in a sense he might h
effort and a con-
Apparently
frontation with an indubitably autograph Crucifixion bysometime
our before I47I Tura did
artist, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge,29
for a period long enough to make him fee
reveals not only a similar imagination gationbut also similar
towards that city,34 though it is far f
actually
details, proving that our painting must be the earlierlived there, as it is usually assume
of the
two. Except for small alterations the proudly youthful,
and I456.35 In any case, the influence of
Mantegnesque
athletic body of Christ appears almost identical in the two culture does not appear m
versions (Figs.24, 25, 26): the same precision of anatomical
Perkins Crucifixion, and if it is a work by Tur
detail, the same tight-clutching line that rhythmically
have been produced at a very early stage, bef
unites muscle and bone can be observed in both.
draw Only the from contemporary Vene
inspiration
disquieting, tormented expression of the Florentine picture
painting. 36
has been substituted by the more traditionalAmongsolution ofmuch in vogue in mid-cen
artists
features appeased in death. New, more pathetic accents
was probably Angelo del Maccagnino, depinto
who attracted
enrich the figures of the mourners of the Cambridge picture:most attention among co
in our version the bulk is compact, soberly classicizing and,
all things considered, Pierfrancesque, while in the Fitz-
william Crucifixion the figures are shown in continuous, tor-
mented movement emphasized by the wriggling folds of their
cloaks, but they enact their r61le with self-conscious dignity
32 I am referring to Giacomo Turola, active as a painter
and even with a certain moderation difficult Estense
to find in their
court as early as 1434. Some standards painted b
by Tura and Galasso in 1451 (see A. VENTURI: 'I primor
counterparts (Figs.27, 28). On the other hand,
artisticothough the
a Ferrara', Rivista storica italiana, I [i8841, p.i6).
gestures in the Perkins panel are elementary
33 and evenA.some-
Following VENTURI (op. cit. [8851, p.710 f.) most c
what crude, the expression of lack of emaciated
Mary's weary, documentary records about Tura in Ferrara bet
probably coincides with his stay in Padua. It is also taken
face and the deeply felt realism of the disfigured cry of
attended studies Her
with the most famous master of that cit
two companions are of such intensity as 34
toBy
recall some
his will of on
written 14th January 1471, Tura dispo
goods be distributed 'pauperibus personis in civitate Venetiar
Cosme's most touching creations (Figs.29,explain
30, 31).
if not by supposing particular feelings of grat
When could this picture have been painted ? The
where firmness
he actually lived for some time.
of modelling, the calm amplitude of silhouette,
-5 A the long
possible folds
stay in Venice could have taken place, fo
of drapery seem to suggest a moment not far 1465
fromandthat
1467,ofwhen
the Ferrarese documents are silen
Following VENTURI (op. cit. C[885], p.713), most students
so-called Autumn in Berlin which, if the author of that panel
these years the painter was working on the decoration o
is to be identified with Angelo del Maccagnino, would
Pico's in mean
Mirandola. But apart from the uncertainty of the
ing that cycle
sometime before 1456. This is obviously unreliable about the author of the paintings, there
evidence,
suspect (see L. CAPRA: 'Tura inventato', Biblioteca Comunale
but the Pierfrancescan luminosity of both Recenti
temperas favours
ingressi, V [1961], pp.i3-i6) that the description
a dating not far from the mid-century and tures
the simple
was only struc-
fruit of poetic invention.
ture and sober ornamentation of architecture of chronology
36 The the Perkins of Tura's works is, for the time bein
and this is not the place to discuss it in detail. I just want t
Crucifixion also recall Ferrarese works ofI about
consider I450,aO
executed ini.e.
the 1450's, besides the Perkins Crucif
belonging to a moment preceding the penetration
Madonna,of Paduan
also the three small panels usually believed t
Renaissance motifs in local culture.31 We know that
predella by 1451
belonging to this latter: the Virgin of the Annunc
Colonna in Rome, the St Maurelius in the Poldi Pezzoli M
the St George in the Cini collection in Venice. They do in
to the very same stage of the artist's development as the
their shape and composition make it doubtful that they h
of the same altar-piece. About I460-70 I should date t
29 No.PD.3o-1947. This panel is generally recognized asMuses
by Turain London and
and dated inMilan, four panels representing th
two Saints in the Washington National Gallery, two panel
the I470's (see j. w. GOODISON - G. H. ROBERTSON: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cam-
bridge. Catalogue of Paintings, Cambridge [1967], p.177inf.).
the AsJohnson collection, Philadelphia, the Crucifixio
the mourning
Museum,
Virgin and St John in this painting seem to me very close in style the Pietd
to the of the Museo Correr, the Virgin and Ch
figures
of the organ shutters of 1469 in the Ferrara Museo del Venice, the as
Duomo, and Pietdl in the Kunsthistorisches Museum
the city
Sebastian
view in the background recalls Mantegna's Paduan works, and
I am Christopher in the Berlin Museum, and,
inclined,
shutters of the Museo del Duomo in Ferrara.
however, to date it to the preceding decade.
30 Such as the miniature by Guglielmo Giraldi on the Another problem
frontispiece which needs to be hinted at in this c
of Cod.
Gallarati Scotti I in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, cerning
dated Tura's activity
1448 (see M. as an illuminator. I am in doubt
SALMI, op. cit. [1961], p.II), or the frontispiece of theof the tiny
Missal initial
(Lat.239) ofinthe
a De Civitate Dei manuscript of the Bi
Biblioteca Estense in Modena, to be identified with the Ferrara (Cl.II.I67) that
one illuminated for BERENSON (Italian Pictures of the
Duke Borso by Giorgio d'Alemagna between 1449 and [I932],
1457. p.58o) referred
See below noteto him; but I think he was right t
37 and, for opinions contrary to this identification, D. cut-out
FAVAminiature of the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin (No
and M. SALMI:
of the Virgin.
I manoscritti miniati della Biblioteca Estense di Modena, Florence [1950],This,
p.83 as
ff.well as the other historiated initials c
Medieval
31 As we know, Mantegna visited the Estean court of Ferrara asand Renaissance
early as 1449, Miniatures from the National Galler
but it was probably only after the execution of the first D.C. [19751,
frescoes PP-78-83),
of the Ovetari though excluded from the art
chapel with Stories of St James, and the return of Bono those who to
da Ferrara have
hisdevoted
native monographs to Cosm&, are in m
city in 145I, that Mantegnism begun to penetrate into autograph works, to be dated about 1470o.
Ferrarese culture.

378

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 27. Detail from Crucifixion illustrated in 28. Detail from Crucifixion, by Cosmb
Fig. I6. Tura. (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cam-
bridge).

29. Detail from St George and the 30. Detail from St Sebastian illus- 3'1. Detail from Crucifixion illustrated
Dragon, by Cosmb Tura. (Museo trated in Fig.24. in Fig.i 6.
del Duomo, Ferrara).

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32. Crucifixion, here attributed to Michele Pannonio. 33. Trinity, detail from a cut-out miniature, here attributed
(Formerly Private Collection, Milan). to Taddeo Crivelli. (Formerly Drey Collection, Munich).

34. Madonna and Child with Saints, here attributed to Michele Pannonio. (Collection Count Cini, Venice).

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 FERRARESE PAINTING ABOUT 1450: SOME NEW ARGUMENTS

younger generation. Nevertheless, though some reflection of

his miniatures speak clearly enough: the blind
the precious, caressing material of the pictures
movements,reasonably the overflowing and sometime
attributable to this master can be discerned in Tura's
tions of the early
characters, or the 'expressionistic
works, neither Maccagnino nor Pisanello forms(another offer,artistin some cases, striking analogies
highly esteemed at the Este court), nor one torialof language,
Leonello's both as it is known from
favourite illuminators, Guglielmo Giraldi, seem to works
recognized have and as it appears in the pane
the Perkins
stimulated his interest very much. A remarkable collection.of
affinity Now it seems to me that some critics
atmosphere and character with our artist's restless,
erroneouslyimpulsive
consider the fanciful, expressive and substanti-
universe can be discovered, on the other hand, in the pro-
ally anticlassical vision of the two illuminators simply as a
duction of two other Ferrarese miniaturists:derivativeGiorgio
of Tura's art.39 There exist, indeed, examples of
d'Allemagna and Taddeo Crivelli. The personality
this kind ofof the in Ferrarese painting already long
imagery
former remains, for the time being, rather vaguely
before ouroutlined,
master's appearance, and every indication leads
but there is no question about the stylistic relationship
one to believe that they constituted a more or less constant
between him and Tura with whom, as documentstendency,testify,
of which heboth the two miniaturists and Cosme
worked together on at least one occasion.37 As
werefor
onlyCrivelli,3"
representatives.
Another painter included in this tendency and closely
connected with the activity of the above-named is Michele
Ongaro or Pannonio.40 His name is frequently recorded in
Ferrarese documents from 1446 to 1463 and the provenance
of his only signed work, the Budapest Thalia, from the Duke's
37 For the essential dates on 'Georgius de Alemania pictor', documented in
studio
Ferrara from 1441, see VENTURI, Op. cit. [18851, p.71o. In 1452 he painted renders very plausible the hypothesis that he was a
court
ten panels of a casket, gilt by 'Gossome depintore', i.e. by Tura. The only minia- painter in the short period between Maccagnino's
tures which can be attributed to him with certainty are those of the frontispiece
death and Tura's appointment to that job.41 Georg Gom-
of the Spagna of the Biblioteca Ariostea in Ferrara (CI.II.I32), for which he
bosi,
received payment in 1453 (cfr. G. BERTONI: II maggior miniatore della Bibbia di who first suggested this possibility, actually went even
further in affirming that given the close stylistic affinities
Borso d'Este, Modena [1925], PP-43 f.). Unfortunately this sheet has suffered
from humidity, but what still can be discerned there of the master's stylebetween
is Tura and his predecessor, 'there can be no ques-
sufficient to attribute to him a large part of the miniatures of the Missal Lat.239
tion'
(= o.W.5.2) of the Biblioteca Estense, already identified by CAMPORI ('Notizie about their master-pupil relationship. This is in con-
trast with the
dei miniatori dei principi estensi', Atti e Memorie delle RR. Deputazioni di Storia opinion of many critics who claim Michele
Patria per le province modenesi e parmensi, VI [1872], pp.245-73) as the one begun
was the person subjected to the ascendancy of his younger
by Giorgio for Lionello d'Este in I449 and finished in 1457. Most modern
critics agree in rejecting this identification (see above note 30) but so far as colleague,
I but surely not with the evidence of the known
dates of the careers of the two. At least by 1423, when a
can see it is fully confirmed by the style of the miniatures in the first part of the
Estense Missal. On the basis of these two works I attribute to Giorgio also the Michele d'Ungheria is mentioned as Gentile da Fabriano's
following illuminations: frontispiece of the Tabulas astrologiae by Johannes
Blanchinius (Ferrara, Biblioteca Ariostea, C1.I.47), illuminated sheet from collaborator
a (and, judging from the expression used in the
Coral in the Fondazione Cini, Venice (cfr. P. TOESCA: Monumenti e studi perdocuments, la not a mere apprentice) in the Sacristy of Santa
storia della miniatura italiana, Milan [1930], p.127), and the miniatures of the
Trinita in Florence,42 he must already have been a painter,
Albergati Bible, dated 1428, formerly in the collection of Sir A. Chester Beatty
and
as a consequence he was about thirty years older than
(see The Chester Beatty Western Manuscripts, Pt.II, Sotheby's, London [24th June
Cosme, born in I429/30. The Budapest Thalia, a very late
19691, PP.75-80, lot 6i). The illumination of this latter is probably not con-
temporary with the manuscript; perhaps it was executed about 1438 (when work painted sometime between 1456 (the date of Maccag-
Cardinal Albergati, after long stays in Florence and abroad, acted as president
nino's
of the Council of Ferrara), and in any case before 1443, when Albergati died. death) and 1459 (the year when Tura began to
receive regular payments as a court painter),43 may reflect
38 On Taddeo Crivelli's life and activity the basic research was done by
H. J. HERMANN ('Zur Geschichte der Miniaturmalerei am Hofe der Estein in some measure the new cultural atmosphere created during
Ferrara', Jahrbuch der kunsthist. Sammlungen der allerh. Kaiserhauses, XXI [19oo],
Duke
p.29 ff.) and BERTONI (op. cit., p.8 ff.). His share in the illumination of the Bible
Borso's rule. The ostentatiously Renaissance character
of Borso as circumscribed by Hermann is in great part convincing and so is
the identification of his miniatures in Gradual VI of the Museum of San
Petronio in Bologna, suggested by L. FRATI (I corali della Basilica di San
Petronio in Bologna, Bologna [1896], P.53 ff.); but it must be remembered that
on the basis of stylistic analysis some miniatures of Gradual II, too, seem to
have been executed by Crivelli. The decoration of the Decameron atNew York (see H. P. KRAUS: Catalogue 115, New York, n.d. [but 1967],
Holkham
Degree
Hall (see L. DOREZ: Les manuscrits a la peinture . . . Hflolkhamn Hall, Paris certificate of the University of Ferrara from 1469, formerly in the
[1908],
p.71) is, as Bertoni has pointed out, a documented work of Crivelli's, whilein Milan (see TOESCA, Op. cit., p.126); cut-out miniature represe
collection
the Trinity in C initial, formerly Drey collection, Munich (unpub
those of the De Civitate Dei D.IX.I of the Biblioteca Malatestiana at Cesena
see Fig.33).
and the Missal M.518 of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York have
been convincingly attributed to him by SALMI (op. cit. [1932], p.33o 39 and op.
See for example SALMI, Op. Cit. [1932], p.50 ff. and op. cit. [1961], 0.23 f.
40 Perrins
cit. [I961], p.22). A Book of Hours formerly in the collection of Dyson The best study on this still mysterious personage of Ferrarese early Renais-
and now in that of Mr H. P. Kraus in New York, was correctly attributed to is still that of G. GOMBOSI (Op. Cit. [1929-30]; with summary in
sance painting
German);
Crivelli by G. WARNER (Descriptive Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts for documentary information about his life see also L. N. CITTADELLA:
in the
Library of C. W. Dyson Perrins, Oxford [1920], p.175 ff.). Notizie amministrative, storiche . .. relative a Ferrara, Ferrara [1868], Vol.I, p.52 ff.
and A. VENTURI: 'Quadri di scuola italiana nella Galleria Nazionale di
Beside the above-mentioned I ascribe to Crivelli the following miniatures:
Book of Hours in the Biblioteca Estense of Modena (Lat.856= ac.G.9.24; seeL'Arte, III [1900], p.185 f.
Budapest',
SALMI and FAVA, op. cit. p.148 ff.); Pontificale in the Biblioteca Universitaria
41 See GOMBOSI, op. cit. [1933], p.98.
4 See
in Bologna (MS.661; see Mostra storica nazionale della miniatura, Florence G. POGGI: La cappella di Onofrio Strozzi nella chiesa di Santa Trinita,
[ 1954],
Florence 11903], p.20 ff. I think it is very doubtful, on the other hand, that
p.357); cut-out miniature with St Jerome in the Wilderness in the Cleveland
Michele di Nicol6 or Michele Ongaro could be the same person as the painter
Museum of Art (No.47.64; see w. M. MILLIKEN: 'St Jerome in the Wilderness',
The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art XXXV [1948], pp.19-21);
Michele De
dai Unii, mentioned in Ferrara already in 1415. The identification
modo di ben governare by Fra Tommaso da Ferrara in the Biblioteca Trivulziana
has been suggested by A. VENTURI (Op. Cit. [19oo00], p.185) and accepted by
others.
in Milan (Cod.86; see c. SANTORO: I codici miniati della Biblioteca Trivulziana,
Milan [19581 P-59, f.); Concordantia evangelistarum in a private collection in note 5.
43 See above

381

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 FERRARESE PAINTING ABOUT 1450: SOME NEW ARGUMENTS

statement
of Thalia's throne, in open contrast with the that distinguish
tortuous pose of also the above-mentioned Cruci-
the young woman, leaning rather than sitting
fixion (Fig.32).
on her Compare
seat,the mourners' lunatic dance in this
latter formation
seems to reveal the efforts of a painter whose with Thalia's pose,
was the drapery pattern of Mary's
dominated by norms of courtly late Gothic, to the
cloak and adaptclothhim-
abundantly twisting around the legs of
self to new requirements. But there is no evidence of Tura's
the Muse (Figs.45, 47), or the facial types of the pictures in
direct influence in the master's stylisticquestion;
formula and drawn
whether it is into a tragic grimace or quietly
highly improbable that there had been any in his
meditative, the earlier
building material and the basic repertory of
works either. Could he at the very height forms
of his appear
careerto be the same: spacious forehead, bulging,
draw
distant
inspiration from the work of a mere beginner ? eyes
The of tired look, rather thick, irregularly shaped
contrary
is more likely and as the question of Michele's
nose, full, activity
firm lips andin
bulky, receding chin (Figs.41, 43, 44).
Ferrara is likely to throw some light on the artistic life catalogue
But the short of thisof Michele can be enlarged by two
more items.
city about 1450, and in particular on the origins The large
of Tura, itthough somewhat hesitant gesture,
seems worth while to dwell upon it at somewhat greater
the swelling plasticity and fluid chiaroscuro, as well as
length. peculiarities of typology force into the same group a St
This small panel representing the Crucifixion (Fig.32) has George Slaying the Dragon, in the collection of the Earl of
been introduced into critical literature in a rather different Oxford at the Manor House, Mells, Frome, Somerset
context,44 but if compared with representations of the same (Fig.38).49 The sportsmanlike straightforwardness of the
subject by Taddeo Crivelli, the Crucifixion in the Missal hero as opposed to the frightened retreat of his horse in front
M 518 in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York or an of the monster still follows the rule of thelate Gothic drama-
unpublished cut-out miniature (Fig.33) which formerlyturgy, and speaks for a relatively early date. Once one has
belonged to a Munich dealer,45 it turns out to be remarkably perceived this, one realizes that the gesture springs from a
temperament common to all of Pannonio's characters, and
similar to them. I do not suggest, of course, that they are by
the same hand, but the tension of tragic mood, the cut of the richly cadenced contour, the graceful frame of the body
emphatic contours, the elongated proportions and the use and the graduated light that renders flexible and smooth the
of intense light in modelling that characterize them un- surface of the forms, both recall this master's style and dis-
doubtedly betray a common cultural background andsociate
a the picture from Tura's or Liberale's imagery, to
nearly identical date. If the little panel were really, as somewhom the picture has been previously attributed. The same
distinguished art historians assert, a work by Liberale da can be said, in my opinion, about the small Enthroned Virgin
Verona, the date of its execution could be placed about
with Child and four Saints, formerly in the collections of
I470. Considered as a Ferrarese product, it reveals itself Prince
a Massimo and ambassador Vitetti in Rome, and now
much earlier work, painted probably in the 1450's like in that of Count Cini in Venice (Fig.34); a tempera pub-
Crivelli's analogous miniatures.46 As for its author he, too, lished
is some time ago under the name of Girolamo di
to be sought in the circle of Taddeo Crivelli and, I think, Giovanni da Camerino.so At first it may seem that the world
may be identified with Michele Pannonio.47 it opens up is narrower and less resourceful than that of the
To support this view, besides the signed Budapest panel paintings discussed here, but on closer scrutiny it discloses
one has to take into consideration some other works by thisfeatures shared by other components of the group which
painter, namely the two leaves of a polyptych with St LouisI suggest should be connected with Pannonio's activity.
and St Bernardino in the Ferrara Gallery and a third element Masks of troubled or rapt expression are thrown here over
of the same altar-piece representing St Anthony of Padua, the same bony frame, and the rhythmic principle in the
formerly in a private collection in Milan (Figs. 35-37).48 Thedisposition of the masses as well as drapery pattern and
chiaroscuro modelling appear remarkably close to those
restless, tormented spirit of the inhabitants of these panels is,
in fact, in spite of the doubts expressed by some students, known from the leaves of the Franciscan polyptych and from
very closely related to the moody, absent-minded Thalia andthe Budapest Thalia (Figs.39-42). Certain Paduan-Squar-
all of them display peculiarities of habit, of vision and of
cionesque elements, clearly felt by those who believed the
Cini panel to be by Girolamo di Giovanni's hand, confirm
that its master must have been familiar with the artistic
idiom common in Padua and Venice in the I440's
suggest that it, too, goes back to the same time, i.e. to
beginning of our artist's documented activity in Ferr
44 The present whereabouts of this painting, formerly in the collectionSquarcionesque
of influence in the Cini Madonna as we
Mrs Florence Taccani in Milan, is unknown to me. Apparently it comes from
Venetian
the collection of Marchese Boschi in Bologna. It has been published by R. reminiscenes in the St George panel at Mell
LONGHI ('Un apice espressionistica di Liberale da Verona', Paragone, VI (behind
[1955], this latter, just as behind Giambono's contempor
No.65, PP.3-7) as an early work by Liberale; an attribution acceptedSt alsoChrisogonus
by in San Trovaso in Venice, there migh
subsequent criticism.
45 See above note 39. I would date the Munich miniature to the early 1450's.
48 Stylistic relations between Taddeo Crivelli and Pannonio has already been
noted by SALMI (op. cit. [1957], p.16 f. and op. cit. [196I], p.I8).
47 It should be remembered that c. VOLPE ('L'apice espressionistico ferrarese
di Liberale da Verona', Arte antica e moderna, Nos. 13/16 [I961], p.I55) has
, This panel has been published as an early work by Tura (cfr. E. RUHMER,
already recognized this painting's close affinities with Pannonio's style.
48 See GOMBOSI (op. Cit. [I1929-1930], p.105 f.). The attribution to Pannonio has [1958], pp.I6 and x7o) and subsequently referred to Liberale da
op. cit.
been accepted by most scholars; E. RUHMER ('Bartolommeo Bonascia', Verona (cfr. VOLPE, op. cit., p.154 f.). Already Volpe recognized, however, the
Miinchener Jahrbuch, 3rd Ser., VI [x954], p.ioo), however, suggested Bonascia close affinities of the picture with Tura's and Pannonio's style.
as the author of the two Ferrara panels. 50 See R. LONGHI: 'Lettere pittoriche', Vita artistica, I [1926], p.136.

382

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35. St Louis of Toulouse, by Michele Pannonio 36. St Anthony of Padua, by Michele 37. St Bernardino, by Michele Pannonio. 38. St Georg
(Pinacoteca, Ferrara). Pannonio. (Formerly Private Col- (Pinacoteca, Ferrara). Pannon
lection, Milan). House,

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39. Detail from Madonna and 40. Detail from Thalia 41. Detail of St Anthony
Child with Saints illustrated illustrated in Fig. I8. illustrated in Fig.36.
in Fig.34-

42.Child
Detail
andfrom
Saints Madonna with 43.illustrated
illustrated Toulouse Detail ofinixion
St Louis of 44 inetail rom tedru-
illustrated
in Fig.34. Fig.35" Fig.32.

45. Detail from Crucifixion illustrated 46. Detail of Madonna with Child 47. Det
in Fig.32. and Saints illustrated in Fig.34.

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 FERRARESE PAINTING ABOUT 1450: SOME NEW ARGUMENTS

ately thought
a now lost prototype by Gentile or Pisanello) must
51, make it be a Gentile da Fab
type of
likely that before his long stay in Ferrara, the Madonna
Michele did of Humility and is
spend some years in the Veneto region.
small Iangels,
suspecttwothat
on the ground and three h
his vocabulary derives predominantly from The
Venicehaloes are punched and bear two
or Padua;
Madonna's we read: Santa (sic) Maria M
what can be taken for granted, however, is only that in the
Fig.48); and on the Child's, oddly enough:
1440's he was already what art historians call a Squarcion-
Judeorum (detail, Fig.49). As one can see t
esque painter, and that he was among theto artists
Latin who intro-
('Santa' instead of 'Sancta', 'Nafar
duced Squarcionesque 'expressionism' into Ferrara. Though
nominative). However, it is quite strange
opposed by the very different temperament inherent
on the Child's inbethe
halo should what one reads on the Titulus of
works of Piero della Francesca and his followers present
the Cross, whereas at the
the halo itself does not show the cross on the
Estense court at the same time, this tendency appears
nimbus. Besides the to
presence of the haloes, the whole surrounding
groupattracting
have gained ground rapidly in the city, also is delicately rayed.
like-
minded painters from other North Italian The iconographical
artistic centres.formula, of the Madonna accompanied
by small angels,
It is not easy to find out who was the principal is well known
inspirer ofin Gentile da Fabriano's work;
beginning with
the fanciful, passionate and, all things considered, anti- the Valle Romita polyptych in the Brera in
Milan, where
classical current in mid-century Ferrara, but beneath
the the group of the Coronation one can
fact
observe a procession of eight small music-making angels; then
that Taddeo Crivelli, mentioned in this city for the first
going on to the Madonna in the Galleria Nazionale, Perugia
time in 1451, seems to follow a formula found by Michele,
(Fig.5o) where at her feet are seven small angels singing as they
shows that in any case he had an eminent r61le
read in of
a scroll it.music;
Andand no(slightly later) the one in the
doubt this r6le was felt, among others,52 also by Museum
Metropolitan the youngin New York, with the same motif.
Tura making his first steps on the stage ofInfigurative
the Coronationculture.
in a private collection in Paris, the angels
A person of extraordinary talent and in no way and
are larger, bound to altogether
disappear the from the Madonna in the
late Gothic past, he was able not only to National
take Gallery
rapidin Washington
posses- and from the one in the Frick
collection,
sion of the artistic means of the tendency New York; in but
mentioned, the central panel of the Quaratesi
polyptych (Hampton
also to renew and subjugate it, becoming, by the Court)
late they appear on a large scale, and
are absent from the fresco in the Duomo at Orvieto, datable
I450'S, the leading painter of this city. Surely his early
1425. If we are
training was also involved in Paduan painting, willingprob-
most to accept an early date for the Brera
polyptych, between 1400 and 1405, then we have to place before
ably Mantegna's, but his formation can hardly be explained
1423 - the date of the Uffizi Adoration of the Magi - both the
without local sources and in particular without Pannonio's
Perugia Madonna and the one in the Metropolitan.2 The type
and Taddeo Crivelli's creative fantasy. of the small angels, so characteristic of Northern gothic, is part
and parcel of the culture of the master from Fabriano before
his residence in Florence; the angels depicted on a larger scale
in the later works reflect his increasing tendency towards
61 What this prototype might have been like, one can imagine
naturalism onslow
and his theretreat
basisfrom
of Lombard tradition.
Pisanello's superb sketches in the Mantua Palazzo Ducale (see G. PACCAGNINI -
The iconographical characteristics
M. FIGLIOLI: Pisanello alla corte dei Gonzaga, Milan [1972], p.6o ff. and figs. on
are moreover paralleled by
pp.90-9 ). the typology of the Madonna, who resembles very closely the
56 In spite of recent attempts to isolate works of hitherto unknown early one in Perugia, so long as we bear in mind the differences in
Quattrocento Ferrarese masters (see C. L. RAGGHIANTI: Stefano da Ferrara, scale and the poor state of preservation of the small Athens
Florence [1972] and 'I1 Maestro di Sant'Apollinare', Critica d'Arte, Nos.133 panel. As far as other characteristics are concerned, such as the
and 135
della [1977],
pittura pp.25-4oAntichitd
ferrarese', and 35-50; s. PADOVANI:
tViva 'Materiale
XIII [1974], No.5 per
pp.3-2i; la storia
'Pittori alla
haloes, in almost every case the Child's nimbus lacks its cross,
corte estense nel primo '400oo', Paragone, XXVI [I975], No.299, PP-25-53 and although it is present not only in the Child's but also in the
'Nuove personalith nella pittura emiliana', ibid., XXVII [1976], Nos.317-19, Madonna's halo in the Adoration of the Magi of 1423.
pp-40-59), it is still hard to visualize the panorama of pictorial production in Like inscriptions on nimbuses, Gentile often uses in their place
that city about 1450. In any case it seems probable that apart from those
fanciful cufic characters, when as on the border of the Mfadonna
recorded in Ferrarese documents, other masters, like Liberale da Verona,
might have work there, too, and drawn inspiration from Michele Pannonio's of Humility in the Museo Civico at Pisa, he does not simply
painting. introduce a short quotation from the Koran. In fact in the
restricted number of surviving works by Gentile there are plenty
of variations on methods of depicting the haloes and positioning
the inscriptions. We can be sure that the painting in Perugia is
the one that comes closest to the Athens Madonna, as far as both
Madonna and Child are concerned. In Athens, instead of the
pomegranate as in Perugia, the Child receives from his mother
Shorter Notices a twig which can only be tentatively identified as myrtle.

A Gentile da Fabriano at Athens

1 The picture bore no attribution, and its provenance is unrecorded. I take
BY CESARE BRANDI
this opportunity to thank the Director of the Athens Gallery, D. Papastamou
IN the National Gallery in Athens which,
who when I visited
was responsible for carrying it
outtwo
the photography, and Nicolas Th.
Cholevas I
years ago, was undergoing reconstruction, who was kind enough a
observed to supply
small me with them.
I Reproductions of works cited by Gentile da Fabriano can be conveniently
panel on gold ground representing the Madonna and Child with
consulted in the fine plates accompanying the Rizzoli monograph recently
Angels, somewhat damaged but free of repaints,
published (E. which
MICHELETTI:IGentile
immedi-da Fabriano, Milan [1976]).

385

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