Palazzo dei Diamanti has reopened its doors welcoming the exhibition dedicated to two great Ferrara masters of the Renaissance: Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa.
Over one hundred works on display, from museums and collections around the world
Equipped with an incredible compositional talent, extraordinary in quality and emotional expressiveness, Ercole de' Roberti (Ferrara, c. 1450 -1496) was the heir of the Ferrarese Workshop, the youngest and most intelligent among those who participated in the cultural climate of Palazzo Schifanoia , in the last years of the government of Borso d'Este.
He worked several times in Bologna, but it was in Ferrara that he found the most suitable environment in which to express himself during the last decade of his life, spent employed by the court.
It was Lorenzo Costa (Ferrara, 1460 – Mantua, 1535) who inherited his legacy and continued his style in his early works. But his painting changed during his long stay in Bologna where we find a greater softness. In the same period Leonardo and Perugino were imposing a new "manner", which Costa immediately understood and of which he was one of the major interpreters, even after his transfer to Mantua to the Gonzaga court.
Among the juvenile proofs there are the compartments of the Griffoni polyptych, executed alongside Francesco del Cossa, and the luminous Portraits of John II and Ginevra Bentivoglio
The rooms dedicated to recent years are embellished with four paintings of rare refinement, thanks to the exceptional loan granted by the National Gallery of London: in addition to the diptych that belonged to the Duchess Eleonora of Aragon, the Collection of manna and the Institution of the Eucharist, perhaps coming from a church in Ferrara.
From the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth comes the panel with Portia and Brutus which will be reunited with the companion with Lucrezia, Brutus and Collatino from the Galleria Estense in Modena and masterpieces such as the Adoration of the Child from the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon.
The exhibition has its ideal prologue in Palazzo Schifanoia, where the young Ercole de' Roberti makes his debut in the Salone dei Mesi by realizing the month of September, and a natural continuation in the halls of the National Art Gallery on the piano nobile of Palazzo dei Diamanti where, for the occasion, a thematic itinerary is proposed which explores the artistic context in which de' Roberti and Costa operate.
Renaissance in Ferrara. Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa
Ferrara, Diamond Palace
February 18 - June 19, 2023
Cover work: Ercole de' Roberti: Bentivoglio Diptych (Giovanni II and Ginevra Bentivoglio), 1473-74 Tempera on wood, 54 x 38 cm, 1 x 53,7 Washington, National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Cress Collection
