COSTA, Lorenzo the Elder
(b. ca. 1460, Ferrara, d. 1535, Mantova)

Virgin and Child Enthroned

c. 1495
Oil on panel, 50 x 37 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

The style of this painting includes many typical elements of 15th-century painting, such as the use of linear perspective to create the spatial setting, reinforced by the architectural elements; the classical style referring to antiquity; the calm monumentality of the Virgin; and the luminosity of the bright, clear and glowing colours.

The background, separated by a smooth parapet, takes the form of a broad landscape which recalls the work of Filippo Lippi and which looks forward to the interest in landscape shown by artists in the following century.




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