Regions: Ferrara, Mantua, and the Veneto (2 of 2)

One of the greatest fifteenth-century illuminators was Girolamo da Cremona (active c. 1451- 1485) whose style was influenced by Andrea Mantegna, a master of perspective with a deep fascination for the art of antiquity. In his Judith with the Head of Holofernes, the figure of Judith wears classical dress and is treated much as if she were an ancient statue. In 1461 Mantegna recommended Girolamo to his patron Barbara of Brandenburg, marchioness of Mantua. Girolamo’s Pentecost bears many similarities to the paintings executed by Mantegna in the 1460s and was probably painted in Mantua. The symmetry of the composition and the quality of carefully proportioned space epitomize the quest for monumentality often seen in fifteenth-century Italian painting. A more expressive approach appears in the work of the Ferrarese artist Cosmè Tura, whose style is reflected in miniatures such as Initial D: Saint John the Baptist and Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata as well as in his panel paintings The Annunciation with Saint Francis and Saint Louis of Toulouse and Madonna and Child in a Garden.

Regions: Rome (1 of 2) Regions: Region: Ferrara, Mantua, and the Veneto (1 of 2)