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Draft:Renaissance in Ferrara

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Aprile, Salone dei Mesi di Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara

The Renaissance in Ferrara began with the signoria of Leonello d'Este around the mid-15th century and produced original achievements within the early Italian Renaissance. It was contributed by the school of Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de' Roberti. A second school took off in the 16th century with Dosso Dossi.

History[edit]

Pisanello, prima medaglia di Leonello d'Este (1441-1443)
Baldassarre d'Este, Ritratto di Borso d'Este

The court of the Este in Ferrara was one of the most vital in northern Italy since the late 14th century, when Niccolò d'Este funded the University of Ferrara and started the construction of the Castello Estense.[1] His courtly features were prominent, as evidenced by his interests in the fable world of medieval heritage, astrology and esotericism. On the artistic level, Pisanello, who produced several medals for Lionello d'Este, was highly regarded, as was the illuminated production of both international in which Belbello da Pavia (author of the Bible of Niccolò d'Este) stood out, as well as update to humanism, such as that of Taddeo Crivelli (author of the Bible of Borso d'Este).[2]

The Este Renaissance court was composed of rich and ancient families of the Ferrarese nobility, such as the Giocoli and the Roverella who contributed to the splendor with their patronage.[3][4][5] With Leonello d'Este in power, the cultural horizons of the court expanded further, ranging among all the new ferments and contributing to the creation of an environment quite unique in the Italian panorama. Educated by the humanist Guarino Veronese, he was in contact with the leading artistic personalities of the time, among whom were Leon Battista Alberti, Jacopo Bellini, Piero della Francesca and Andrea Mantegna (in town between 1449 and 1451). He also started an antiquarian collection and a tapestry manufactory, which created close relations with Flanders. Some great transalpine masters stayed in Ferrara, such as Rogier van der Weyden and Jean Fouquet. The works of these authors were admired in the Marquis collections by passing Italian artists, which allowed a contact point between the two great schools of painting.[2]

Painting[edit]

During the era of Borso d'Este, in power from 1450 to 1471, the multiple artistic ferments of the court were transformed into a distinctive style, especially in painting. The basic stimuli were the courtly culture, the perspective rationality and limpid light of Piero della Francesca, the optical attention to detail of the Flemish painters and donatellism, filtered through the squarcioneschi. The Ferrara artists added their own peculiar interpretation, characterized by linear tension, expressive exasperation, preciousness combined with strong expressiveness.[2]

The Studiolo di Belfiore[edit]

Cosmè Tura, Calliope, National Gallery, London

The emergence of the School of Ferrara, with its peculiar language, is gathered in the surviving decorations of the Studiolo di Belfiore, commissioned by Lionello but finished at the time of Borso, already in the vanished Delizia di Belfiore. The decoration consisted of tarsie by the da Lendinara and a pictorial cycle of Muses on panel, which were dispersed or destroyed after the disappearance of the palace.[6]

Among the most representative panels, Thalia by Michele Pannonio is stylistically linked to International Gothic, with a slender and elegantly screwed figure, underscored by slippery outlines that break in the sharp knee-length drapery, while the exuberant spatiality of the seat and the whimsical decorative richness, in an antiquated taste, hark back to the Paduan Renaissance.[6]

Polimnia, formerly attributed to Francesco del Cossa and now believed to be created by an anonymous Ferrara artist, shows instead an evident debt to the modes of Piero della Francesca, with a solemn and synthetic layout that stands out against a sharp open panorama.[6]

In the Calliope, made by Cosmè Tura, some stimuli are noticed which, recomposed in an original way, were the basis of the School of Ferrara: solid and perspective-conscious construction, with a lowered point of view, and an unbridled imagination in the description of the throne, with a free juxtaposition of elements also derived from the Paduan lesson of Francesco Squarcione, but highlighted by incident light to a surreal tension[6]

Cosmè Tura[edit]

Cosmè Tura, St. George, from the Ferrara Cathedral organ doors

The founder of the School of Ferrara is considered Cosmè Tura, who was later joined by Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de' Roberti. Despite individual differences, their works are united by a preference for precious and refined images, sharp profiles and incisive chiaroscuro that renders each material as embossed metal or hard stone.[1][6]

Tura's style can be read in all its originality and complexity in the Ferrara Cathedral Organ Case, painted in 1469. When open, it shows an annunciation. When closed, it shows Saint George and the Princess. In the'Annunciation the solemn background architecture, which cites the ancient, is reminiscent of Andrea Mantegna, as are the "stone-like" draperies or the presence in the landscape of layered rocky spurs. At the same time there are details of great naturalism and reminders of the courtly world, as in the bas-reliefs under the arches depicting the Planets, all fused and reworked with extraordinary flair. The side of Saint George is characterized by an unbridled dynamism, made more expressive by the clear and sharp contours, the graphic highlights and the extreme expressionism that distorts the faces of men and animals. The commission of the Roverella Polyptych was very important. It was created by Cosmè Tura with oil painting and egg tempera on a board of poplar.[7]

Francesco del Cossa[edit]

Francesco del Cossa, Marzo

Francesco del Cossa started from a common basis with his colleague but arrived at different results because of the greater emphasis on the lesson of Piero della Francesca, with more composed and solemn figures. His participation in the Belfiore Studiolo is not certain, but he did participate in the other great essay in Ferrara painting, the Salone dei Mesi in Palazzo Schifanoia. Several painters worked on this complex cycle of frescoes, probably directed by Cosmè Tura, based on an iconographic program by Pellegrino Prisciano rich in astronomical, philosophical and literary references. Originally the decoration consisted of twelve sectors, one for each month, of which seven remain today. Each sector is divided in turn into three bands: a higher one where the triumph of the patron god of the month is painted surrounded by the "sons" engaged in typical activities, a central one with a blue background with the zodiac sign and three "decans," and a lower one with scenes revolving around the figure of Borso d'Este. By praising the Lord and his ideals the entire state was celebrated in its various functions, ranging from representation to government.[7]

For example, Francesco del Cossa was responsible for the month of March, characterized by solid, synthetic forms, luminous color and careful care in perspective construction. To the almost crystallized forms of Cosmè Tura, Francesco contrasted a more natural human representation.[7]

Ercole de' Roberti[edit]

Details of Miracoli di san Vincenzo Ferrer from Polittico Griffoni

The third protagonist of the School of Ferrara is Ercole de' Roberti, also active in the Salone dei Mesi. He is attributed the ninth month, September, where the forms undergo a geometric stylization and the figures take on such dynamism, caused by the taut and angular contours, that make everything become anti-naturalistic, but of great expressive violence.[8]

He also created the panels with the Stories of St. Vincent Ferrer (1473, Pinacoteca Vaticana). An evolution is noticeable in them: If the architecture appears more rationally organized, the broken contours of the figures, the forcefully embossed draperies and the dreamlike landscapes remain. They, as a whole, befit the restlessness meandering in the period, which led at the end of the century to a crisis of Renaissance ideals.[8]

The Pala Portuense (1479-1481), made for the Church of Santa Maria in Porto, near Ravenna, represents an opposite goal, where the expressionistic tensions are relegated to a few bas-reliefs on the base of the throne of the Virgin, while the general sentiment is tuned to a calm and balanced harmony, with symmetrical correspondences in the colors. The whole is enlivened by the dizzying architecture of the throne, which leaves room for an open panorama at the base (where the mythical foundation of the church is alluded to) with small columns where the marble is rendered with extraordinary luministic sensitivity.[8]

The 16th century[edit]

Dosso Dossi, Three Ages of Man (1515)

The generation of fifteenth-century masters came to an end in the 1590s lacking high-level artistic turnover. At the beginning of the new century, the Este took more variedly trained artists under their patronage, who were updated to the novelties of the Roman and Venetian Renaissance.[9] Local artists sought out Venice as a result of the alliances established by the House of Este and their preferences. From Titian, a guest several times in the city, they drew an intelligent interpretation of his language in the key of imaginative narrative, typical of the cultured literary milieu of Ferrara.

The dominant figures of court painting in this period were Garofalo, Ludovico Mazzolino and Dosso Dossi. The presence of literary greats such as Ludovico Ariosto fostered an atmosphere of fantastic evocation; this is especially noticeable in Alfonso II d'Este's extraordinary studiolo, the Alabaster Camerini which was destroyed in 1598. The decoration, directed by Dossi, included a series of extraordinary Bacchanali canvases by various artists including Giovanni Bellini and, especially, Titian. Dosso took from Titian certain stylistic features, such as chromatic richness and broad landscape openings, to which he added a fluid and vividly inventive style, especially in literary and mythological subjects. Some of his mythological motifs were still a source of inspiration for early Seventeenth century Emilian painters such as Annibale Carracci.[10][9]

Another popular Ferrara painter was Lorenzo Costa, who became court painter in Mantua after the disappearance of Mantegna.[11]

The second half of the century, with the disappearance of Dosso and the end of the great grand ducal commissions, maintained a certain vitality thanks to the presence of the Filippi family, in which Sebastiano, also known as the Bastianino, the author of a Last Judgment in the apse of Ferrara Cathedral, stood out. Later, the local school benefited from Carlo Bononi, but with the annexation to the State of the Church and the transfer of the Este capital to Modena, Ferrara lost its role as a leading artistic center. The end of an era was sealed by the dismantling of the alabaster chambers, whose decorations, taken to Rome, ended up being dispersed and are now in various museums.[12]

Architecture and urban planning[edit]

Piazza Ariostea

In 1443, Lionello d'Este commissioned Leon Battista Alberti to design the bell tower of the Duomo and to arrange the base of the equestrian monument to Niccolò III, but his presence had no significant impact on the city's architecture, which remained dominated by the late 14th-century tradition with its use of decorated terracotta. Due to defensive needs and the growing demand for housing, the Este's interventions in the city focused mainly on urban planning issues rather than the construction of individual buildings. Ferrara was a medieval city with a core of narrow, winding streets, devoid of squares and enclosed to the south by the Po di Volano and to the north by the Giovecca canal, with the only landmarks in the Duomo, the Este residence and the Castle of San Michele.[13]

Palazzo dei Diamanti]

A first enlargement took place with Borso d'Este in the middle of the century, but it was Ercole I who put in place an ambitious urban planning project, within the framework of the Renaissance experience of the "ideal city," which is remembered today as one of the first in Europe and earned the city recognition as a World Heritage by UNESCO. Hercules commissioned the architect Biagio Rossetti to design a doubling of the city according to a new rational scheme, the Erculean Addition.[13]

The Giovecca ditch was buried, making it a wide street, the Corso della Giovecca, that would act as a hinge with the old part of the city: at the outlets of the medieval streets it made regular extensions, organically merging the old and the new. The new part, drawing on Roman town planning in Vitruvius's descriptions, had an orthogonal street network that was divided into two main axes: Via degli Angeli (today Corso Ercole I), which traced an earlier route connecting the castello and Belfiore, and Via dei Prioni, which ran from the Po Gate to the Sea Gate in an east-west direction. This particular axis, which was completely new and fully "public" in flavor (as opposed to the other axis that remained linked to the passage of the dukes), was particularly emphasized with a large tree-lined square, today's Piazza Ariostea.[13]

Palazzo Prosperi-Sacrati on the Quadrivio degli Angeli.

To integrate the addition with the rest of the city and dilute the possible rigidity of the scheme, Rossetti left green areas to act as a "break" in the building fabric and, for the buildings he designed, continued to use traditional terracotta. Astonishing views at street outlets were also avoided, preferring foreshortened views of the architecture. The paradigmatic prerogatives of his design can be fully perceived at the point of intersection of the axes, the so-called "Quadrivio degli Angeli," which was not emphasized with a square, but only by the elegant decorations on the corners of the buildings, among which Rossetti's palazzo dei Diamanti stands out[13]. The building owes its name to its pointed ashlar cladding, which creates a striking chiaroscuro effect, with slabs decorated with candelabras at the corner on the crossroads, where a balcony is also set. The other buildings on the crossroads did not match its grandeur focusing rather on seeking effects of variation with large portals or corner pilasters.[13]

The new Ferrarese urban situation was, in the Italian and European panorama of the time, the most modern and also the most enduring: there is no clear division between the city of the lords and the city of the subjects, nor is there a subservient relationship between the two (as was the case in Mantua or Pienza), but rather there is a harmonious integration between the parts, each with its own characterization. A complete development of the Addition would indeed be completed over time, although the lack of population growth and the subsequent fall of the dynasty halted the project. Nevertheless, precisely because of the modernity and organicity of the original design, the new city face has held up well to urban transformations to the present day.[13]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b Zuffi, 2004, cit., p. 186.
  2. ^ a b c De Vecchi-Cerchiari,. cit., p. 108.
  3. ^ Ferruccio Pasini-Frassoni, "Dissertazioni Storiche e Genealogiche" - "La stirpe dei Giocoli", in "Rivista Araldica del Collegio Araldico", Rome, Anno XIIIº, N. 4 (April 20, 1915), p. 531.
  4. ^ Michele Russo, Il Palazzo del Verginese Una Delizia Estense nascosta, Sapienza Università Editrice 2018 Rome p.19 note 2.
  5. ^ T. Dean, Land and Power in Ferrara in the Late Middle Ages, Dominazione Estense, Deputazione di Storia Patria ferrarese, Modena Ferrara 1990. p. 75.
  6. ^ a b c d e De Vecchi-Cerchiari,. cit., p. 109.
  7. ^ a b c De Vecchi-Cerchiari,. cit., p. 109.
  8. ^ a b c De Vecchi-Cerchiari, cit., p. 111.
  9. ^ a b De Vecchi-Cerchiari, cit, p. 234.
  10. ^ Zuffi, 2005, cit., p. 238.
  11. ^ "Lorenzo Costa". National Gallery. Retrieved 2024-06-06.
  12. ^ Zuffi, 2007, cit., p. 248.
  13. ^ a b c d e f De Vecchi-Cerchiari, cit. , p. 113.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Pierluigi De Vecchi ed Elda Cerchiari, I tempi dell'arte, volume 2, Bompiani, Milano 1999. ISBN 88-451-7212-0
  • Stefano Zuffi, Il Quattrocento, Electa, Milano 2004. ISBN 88-370-2315-4
  • Stefano Zuffi, Il Cinquecento, Electa, Milano 2005. ISBN 88-370-3468-7
  • Stefano Zuffi, Grande atlante del Rinascimento, Electa, Milano 2007. ISBN 978-88-370-4898-3

See also[edit]

Other Projects[edit]

Category:House of Este Category:Renaissance Category:Art Category:Italian Art Category:Duchy of Ferrara Category:History of Ferrara Category:Emilia-Romagna

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