Cosmè Tura

(Ferrara, c. 1433 – 1495)

The princess e St. George slays the dragon; Announcing angel e Virgin Announced, 1469

Tempera grassa on canvas

Museo della Cattedrale, invv. MC053-MC056

The ancient organ of Ferrara Cathedral, made by the celebrated friar Giovanni da Mercatello, was placed in the center of the apse and was enclosed by the four canvases by Cosmè Tura that formed its doors. Remaining attached to the wooden case until the 18th century, when the 15th-century organ was replaced by a new instrument, the canvases were paid to the painter in June 1469, a date that later became pivotal in the chronological reconstruction of the so-called Ferrara Workshop. The current museum arrangement, which allows the unified view, does not reflect the original location: the painted doors inside and out were intended to be opened and closed, depending on the use of the musical instrument. With the doors open, visible on the left were the Announcing angel and on the right, the Virgin Annunciate. Ad ante chiuse, invece, i fedeli potevano ammirare il grandioso St. George e Princess, one of the most dramatic scenes in 15th-century Italian painting. Despite the darkening of the canvases typical of tempera grassa, the work still retains all of Tura’s expressive power and extraordinary representational imagination. The greatness of the Ferrara artist can be fully grasped in the depiction of the princess fleeing in terror, adorned with precious jewels that echo the decorative arts so beloved by the Este family, or in the unforgettable Saint George, whose prancing horse has the same textural brilliance as the bronze sculptures of Niccolò Baroncelli and Domenico di Paris, who were also active in Ferrara in those years in the Cathedral itself.