Tura, Cosimo (1430-1495)

Italian painter. A painter of religious and allegorical scenes, he developed a highly individual style of rich and fanciful ornamentation, his forms sharp, spiky, and metallic. His fondness for dolphins as a motif can be seen in An Allegorical Figure (c. 1455, National Gallery, London).

Tura was the first outstanding representative of the School of Ferrara. He seems to have studied in the Squarcione workshop in Padua and to have been influenced by the sculpturesque style of the young Andrea Mantegna, though not with the same antiquarian or classical tendency. He worked mainly for the Este court in Ferrara.

Artists whose work is related to his are Francesco Cossa, Ercole de Roberti, and Marco Zoppo.