Ronnie Archer-Morgan on A Muse by Cosimo Tura
‘I love this Renaissance painting, partly because of the sheer precocious talent of the artist, Cosimo Tura, only 30 when he painted it for a duke of the d’Este family of Ferrara, Italy. The sumptuously dressed beauty (the detail minutely observed) sits sulkily and pensively on a theatrical throne decorated with six fantastical dolphins, ruby eyes and gleaming pearls adorning their pectoral fins.
‘The dolphins support a huge shell above her. She is in a landscape flooded with surreal light, giving the painting a surprising sense of spatial construction for its vintage. The shell, dolphins and pearls are attributes not of a muse, but of Aphrodite, whom I believe the subject of this amazing painting to be.’
Ronnie Archer-Morgan is an antiques expert and a regular on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. His debut book, a memoir titled Would It Surprise You To Know?, is published on June 23.
Charlotte Mullins comments on A Muse
Cosimo Tura was a true Renaissance man — he designed silverware, painted cartoons for tapestries and created celebratory banners and helmets for tournaments. He also completed decorative schemes for his patron Borso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, and painted large altarpieces for the city’s churches.
This painting is believed to have adorned the Duke’s studiolo at Palazzo Belfiore, his hunting retreat. The room’s theme was the nine muses and this panel may represent Calliope, muse of poetry. Borso’s brother Leonello originally commissioned the series from Angelo del Macagnino, a pupil of the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. When Leonello and Siena died, Tura completed the work.
Calliope must have once hung above eye level, for she looks down at us. She is seated on an ornate throne adorned with six fantastical fish-like serpents baring their teeth. In her right hand is a slender branch of fruiting cherries, echoed by the red and glass beads strung above her head and the glowing eyes of the serpents. Her face is stylised and wouldn’t look out of place in an International Gothic illuminated manuscript. Tura was influenced by the precision and detail of Northern Renaissance painting, possibly through del Macagnino.
By the time Tura painted A Muse, he was employed by the Duke as his official court painter. He worked in Ferrara for his whole career, becoming a leading exponent of the Ferrara School. Many of his works were ephemeral or subsequently destroyed.
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