Cosimo Tura, influenced by the illusionistic, antiquarian…

Cosimo Tura, influenced by the illusionistic, antiquarian style of the Paduan artist Francesco Squarcione and by Netherlandish painters like Rogier van der Weyden, who visited Ferrara in 1449 (when Tura was nineteen), paints, in 1469-71, the exemplary frescos in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara and paints the Roverella Madonna in about 1474.

Both feature the characteristically tense linearism of Tura’s manner.

The Palazzo Schifanoi, a pleasure palace with facade and architecture of little note, belonged to the d'Este family and is located just outside the medieval town walls.

Cosimo, along with Francesco del Cossa, helps produce an intricately conceived allegorical series about the months of the year and zodiac symbols.

The series contains contemporary portraits of musicians, laborers, and carnival floats in idyllic parades.

As in Piero della Francesca's world, the unemotive figures mill in classical serenity.