Lorenzo Costa

Lorenzo Costa got one of the best jobs in Renaissance Italy by a kind of inheritance. When the great Andrea Mantegna died in 1506, having served the Gonzaga rulers of Mantua for decades, Costa was called in to take his place as court painter, a hard act to follow.

He had grown up in the sharp-lined tradition of Ferrara and made his early career in Bologna, painting for the ruling Bentivoglio family, including their portraits and altarpieces in their chapel. Contact with the softer Bolognese painter Francesco Francia gently rounded his manner.

At Mantua he painted allegories for the famous studiolo of Isabella d'Este, the most demanding art patron of the age, working to her detailed written instructions. His allegories for that room hang today in the Louvre, beside the ones Mantegna had made for the same walls.