The Virgin Annunciate [middle right panel]

c. 1470/1480

Cosmè Tura

Painter, Ferrarese, c. 1433 - 1495

Cosmè Tura

Attributed to

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 13

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera and distemper on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (middle right panel): 31 x 12.4 cm (12 3/16 x 4 7/8 in.)
    framed: 43.5 x 16.8 x 4.4 cm (17 1/8 x 6 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1952.2.6.c

Associated Artworks

See all 4 artworks
Four vertical panels each have a painted frame and is occupied by a single person in a shared landscape that stretches across all four panels in this horizontal painting. The people have pale skin and delicate gold lines indicating halos encircling their heads. The person on the far left has his brown hair cut into a ring around his head, and his cleanshaven face is deeply lined. His body is angled slightly to our right, but he turns his head back to the left look at us from the corners of his drooping, heavy-lidded brown eyes. His hooded brown robe is tied at the waist with a rope, and he is barefoot. He holds a black book in his left hand and braces a thin gold cross with his other. There are red wounds on the back of both hands, both feet, and over his right ribs. In the next panel, a person with curly blond hair wears a deep pink cloak over a forest-green robe. The person faces our right in profile, the curly hair lifted off the back of the neck. Dark green, almost black, wings extend from between the shoulder blades. One hand is held up with the first two fingers extended, and the other holds a stem with a white lily. Next, a blond woman stands facing us, wearing a long, topaz-blue robe over a raspberry-pink dress. Her head turns to our left and she looks down, one hand raised with first two fingers and thumb lifted and the other bracing the edge of a book against her body. On the far right, a person wears a white mitre, a tall, white hat split into two petal-like shapes, and a dark pink robe lined with hunter green over a golden-yellow garment. He holds a long staff topped with a curling top end in one hand, and the other hand is raised, also with the thumb and two fingers extended. They all stand on rocky ground with low, rocky hills in the distance under a blue sky. The frames around each person appear to have been painted as arches at some point over or in addition to the frames around each. Those frames continue the landscape but in darker tones, and they darken to almost black along the tops. It is hard to tell whether four wood panels were joined to make this one painting or if one panel was painted to look like several, though the latter seems more likely.

The Annunciation with Saint Francis and Saint Louis of Toulouse [four panels]

Cosmè Tura

1470

The Archangel Gabriel [middle left panel]

Cosmè Tura

1470

Saint Louis of Toulouse

Cosmè Tura

1470

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Sir Francis Cook, 1st bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, by 1888;[1] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset;[2] (Francis A. Drey, London); sold February 1947 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] Fritz Harck, "Verzeichnis der Werke des Cosma Tura," Jb Berlin 9 (1888): 37.
[2] The bill of sale to the Kress Foundation (see note 3) states that the painting was from "the collection of the late Sir Herbert Cook of Richmond (Surrey) England." The 4th Bt. inherited the collection and managed its dispersal after World War II with the trustees of the Cook estate.
[3] Drey sold five Cook paintings to the Kress Foundation, including Tura's "Annunciation with Two Saints" (bill of sale dated 18 February 1947; copy in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1894

  • Exhibition of Pictures, Drawings & Photographs of Works of the School of Ferrara-Bologna, 1440-1540, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1894, no. 5.

2005

  • Masterpieces in Miniature: Italian Manuscript Illumination from the J. Paul Getty Museum, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2005-2006, not in brochure.

Bibliography

1888

  • Harck, Fritz. “Verzeichnis der Werke des Cosma Tura.” Jahrbuch der Königlichen Preussischen Kunstsammlung 9 (1888): 37.

  • Venturi, Adolfo. “L’arte Ferrarese nel periodo d’Ercole I d’Este.” Atti e memorie della R. deputazione di storia patria per le provincie di Romagna 6 (1888): 374.

1892

  • Gruyer, Gustave. “Cosimo Tura.” L’art (October - November 1892): 26.

1894

  • Harck, Fritz. “Austellingen und Versteigerungen: Burlington Fine Arts Club. London.” Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 17 (1894): 313.

1897

  • Gruyer, Gustave. L'Art ferrarais a l'époque des princes d'Este. 2 vols. Paris, 1897: 2:80.

1901

  • Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell’arte italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 7, part 3(1914):538, fig. 406.

1903

  • Cook, Francis. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond. London, 1903: 11, no. 5.

1907

  • Berenson, Bernard. North Italian Painters of the Renaissance. New York and London, 1907: 298.

1908

  • Venturi, Adolfo. “L’opere de’ pittori ferraresi del ‘400 secondo il catalogo di Bernardo Berenson.” L’Arte 11 (1908): 420, fig. 1.

1911

  • Gardner, Edmund G. The Painters of the School of Ferrara. London, 1911: 208.

1912

  • Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy. Edited by Tancred Borenius. 3 vols. London, 1912: 2:231 n.

1913

  • Borenius, Tancred. A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt. Italian Schools. Vol. I, Pt. 2. Edited by Herbert Cook. London, 1913: 139, no. 117, pl. 16.

1930

  • Gronau, Georg. Exhibition of Italian Art. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London 1930: 137-138.

1931

  • Härtzsch, Otto. “Katalog der echten und falschlich zugeschriebenen Werke des Cosimo Tura.” Ph.D. diss., Hamburg University, 1931: 23-24.

1932

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932: 581.

  • Brockwell, Maurice W. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook. London, 1932: 20, no. 117.

1934

  • Longhi, Roberto. Officina Ferrarese. Rome, 1934: 26.

1936

  • Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936: 500.

1941

  • Ortolani, Sergio. Cosmé Tura, Francesco del Cossa, Ercole de'Roberti. Milan, 1941: 70-71, figs. 40, 41.

1950

  • Nicolson, Benedict. The Painters of Ferrara. London, 1950: 11, 18.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 74, no. 26, repro.

1953

  • Neppi, Alberto. Cosmè Tura: saggio critico. Milan, 1953: 87, 136.

1957

  • Salmi, Mario. Cosmè Tura. Milan, 1957: 43, pls. 35a-c.

1958

  • Ruhmer, Eberhard. Tura: Paintings and Drawings. London and New York, 1958: 41, 45, 83, 178, figs. 64-67.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 123, repro., as The Annunciation with Saint Francis and Saint Maurelius.

1960

  • Gilbert, Creighton. "Cosimo di Domenico di Bonaventura." In Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Edited by Alberto Maria Ghisalberti. 82+ vols. Rome, 1960+: 30(1984):27.

1963

  • Bianconi, Pietro. Tutta la pittura di Cosmè Tura. Milan, 1963: 29-30, 48-51, pls. 74-77.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 132, as The Annunciation with Saint Francis and Saint Maurelius.

1966

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 82, fig. 226-229.

1968

  • 119, repro., as The Annunciation with Saint Francis and Saint Maurelius.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:433.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 206, 647.

1974

  • Molajoli, Rosemarie. L'Opera completa di Cosmè Tura e i grandi pittori ferraresi del suo tempo: Francesco Cossa e Ercole de'Roberti. Milan, 1974: 88, figs. 29-32, pls. 28, 29.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 352, repro., as The Annunciation with Saint Francis and Saint Maurelius.

1978

  • Boskovits, Miklós. “Ferrarese Painting around 1450: Some New Arguments.” The Burlington Magazine 120, no. 903 (June 1978): 378.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:510-511; 2:pl. 357.

1982

  • Sgarbi, Vittorio. “Ai margini dell’officina.” In Giuseppe Papagno and Amedeo Quondam, eds. La corte e lo spazio: Ferrara Estense. 3 vols. Rome, 1982: 2:595.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 403, repro., as The Annunciation with Saint Francis and Saint Maurelius.

1996

  • Lippincott, Kristen. "Cosimo Tura." In Jane Turner, ed. The Dictionary of Art. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 31:431.

1997

  • Campbell, Stephen J. Cosme Tura of Ferrara: Style, Politics and the Renaissance City, 1450-1495. New Haven, 1997: 65-69, fig. 48.

1999

  • Molteni, Monica. Cosmè Tura. Milan, 1999: 170, 176, 181, 232, repro.

  • Stemp, Richard. “Two Sculptures Designed by Cosmè Tura.” The Burlington Magazine 141, no. 1153 (April 1999): 209-210, fig. 5.

2000

  • Manca, Joseph. Cosmè Tura: The Life and Art of a Painter in Estense Ferrara. Oxford, 2000: 10, 45, 72-73, 162-164, pl. XIV, figs. 42a-d.

2002

  • Dunkerton, Jill. “Cosmè Tura’s Painting Technique.” In Stephen J. Campbell et al. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Ed. Alan Chong. Exh. cat. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 2002: 142, 145, fig. 63, 157.

  • Toffanello, Marcello. “Cosmè Tura: Drawings and its Pictorial Components.” In Stephen J. Campbell et al. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Ed. Alan Chong. Exh. cat. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 2002: 157.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 660-665, color repro.

2007

  • Natale, Mauro, ed. Cosmè Tura e Francesco del Cossa. L’arte a Ferrara nell’età di Borso d’Este. Exh. cat. Palazzo dei Diamanti and Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara, 2007: 350.

Wikidata ID

Q20173929

You may be interested in

Loading Results