The Italian painter Cosimo Tura (1430-1495) was the principal master of the school of Ferrara and one of the leaders of northern Italian painting.

Cosimo Tura was born in Ferrara sometime before April 28, 1430. He became court painter to Duke Borso d'Este in Ferrara. The duke provided Tura with rooms in the ducal household, later gave him a house, and paid him so well that Tura became a wealthy man. For the duke he executed numerous commissions in what are now called the applied arts. Documents reveal that he designed flags and banners, costumes for pageants, silverware, and tapestries and that he painted horse trappings and tournament helmets and shields.

Tura never married; he had a son by his housekeeper. After his patron died in 1471, Tura's popularity waned. In his later years he lived in a tower of the Ferrara city walls. He died in April 1495.

Tura's early style...