Francesco Cossa

Francesco Cossa or Francesco del Cossa , c.1435-1477?, Italian painter. He was a leading representative of the Ferrarese school and was regarded, with Ercole de'Roberti, as the founder of the Bolognese school. His principal works include The Glorification of March, April, and May, frescoes in the Schifanoia Palace, Ferrara; some admirable portraits of the artist's contemporaries; Madonna Enthroned (Bologna); Madonna and Child with Angels, St. Liberal, and St. Lucy (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.); and an altarpiece representing scenes from the life of St. Vincent Ferrer (National Gall., London, and the Vatican).

Bibliography: See B. Nicolson, The Painters of Ferrara (1950).

Cossa, Francesco del (c.1435–76/7). Italian painter, active mainly in Ferrara, where with Cosimo Tura and Ercole de' Roberti he was the leading artist of the period. His style has many affinities with that of Tura and the same background of development from Mantegna and Piero della Francesca, but Cossa's work reveals a more genial and relaxed temperament. This found expression in the delightful frescos of the Months in the Palazzo Schifanoia at Ferrara; Cossa, Roberti, and Tura are all thought to have contributed to the scheme, but Cossa seems to have been the principal figure. In the early 1470s he moved to Bologna, where his work included an altarpiece for the Griffoni Chapel in the church of S. Petronio (1473); the central panel is in the National Gallery, London.

Cossa, Francesco del (b Ferrara, c.1435; d Bologna, c.1477). Italian painter, active mainly in Ferrara, where with Cosimo Tura and Ercole de' Roberti he was the leading artist of the period. His style has many affinities with that of Tura and the same background of development from Mantegna and Piero della Francesca, but Cossa's work reveals a more genial and relaxed temperament. This found expression in the delightful frescos of the Months in the Palazzo Schifanoia at Ferrara; Cossa, Roberti, and Tura are all thought to have contributed to the scheme, but Cossa seems to have been the principal figure. In the early 1470s he moved to Bologna, where his work included an altarpiece for the Griffoni Chapel in the church of S. Petronio (1473); the central panel is in the National Gallery, London.