Lorenzo Costa

This Virgin and Child by Lorenzo Costa, which has been in the same French family for several generations and is in very good condition despite the thick varnish, is an important addition to the artist’s painted oeuvre.

Born in about 1460 in Ferrara, Costa’s early training was influenced by the School of his native city and especially Ercole de Roberti and Cosme Turà, whose pupil he may have been. Lorenzo Costa’s art gradually evolved after his first stay in Florence and his move to Bologna, where he acquired a workshop in 1485. He then drew nearer to the more classical and supple approach of Francesco Francia, to whom he would become close, occasionally collaborating with him.

At least two other paintings of the Virgin and Child by Lorenzo Costa may be compared to the present version. One, which is more accurately a Sacra Conversazione because it also includes St Frances of Assisi, is in the Pinacoteca di Forlì (inv. n. 578) and recalls the present painting in the inclined pose of the Virgin and the red drapery background.

The other, the Virgin and Child in the gallery of the Palazzo Cini in Venice (inv. VC 6190), bears similarities including the type of the Christ child, whose face is particularly comparable.

The date of this work is debatable: some elements – such as the Virgin’s face and the physical type of the Christ child – would tend to indicate a date in about 1490, when a slight trace of the Ferrara influence was still perceptible. The supple treatment of the landscape and the red drapery behind the Virgin, on the other hand, seem to suggest a date closer to 1500, when he had begun to feel the influence of Antonello da Messina and Bellini.