A Muse (Calliope?)

In the 1450s the Este court at Ferrara was decorating a study at Belfiore, one of its palaces outside the city, with a series of the nine Muses, and this panel belonged to it. Technical examination shows that it was begun in egg tempera by another painter, possibly Angelo da Siena, as a figure on a simpler throne with columns like organ pipes, perhaps Euterpe, the Muse of music. Cosimo Tura took it over and repainted it in oil, using walnut oil and glazes in a manner close to the Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The National Gallery counts it as the earliest Italian oil painting in its collection. She is probably Calliope now, holding a branch of cherries. Her throne is built of golden dolphins with ruby eyes, and strings of coral and crystal beads hang across the shell behind her head.