Annunciation and Nativity (Altarpiece of Observation)

religious

The main panel and the predella formed the altarpiece of the church of Observation in Bologna. At both sides of the predella there were two small paintings representing St Clare and St Catherine of Alexandria, presently both in the Thyssen collection in Madrid. The altarpiece was attributed to Mantegna until the end of the 19th century.

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Annunciation and Nativity (Altarpiece of Observation)

About the Artist

Francesco del Cossa

1435 – 1477

Italian painter, active mainly in Ferrara, where with Cosmè Tura and Ercole de' Roberti he was the leading artist of the period. His style has many affinities with that of Tura and the same background of development from Mantegna and Piero della Francesca, but Cossa's work reveals a more genial temperament and relaxed urbanity. This found expression in the delightful frescoes of the Months in the Palazzo Schifanoia at Ferrara; Cossa, Roberti, and Tura are all thought to have contributed to the scheme, but Cossa seems to have been the leading master. In the early 1470s he moved to Bologna, where he painted an altarpiece for the Griffoni Chapel in the church of San Petronio (1473); the central panel is in the National Gallery, London.

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