Renaissance in Ferrara

Exhibition at Palazzo dei Diamanti

Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa

PALAZZO DEI DIAMANTI - From the 18th of february to the 19th of June 2023.

For the reopening of the new exhibition spaces of Palazzo dei Diamanti, a large exhibition on Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa.

Following a complex restoration and redevelopment, Palazzo dei Diamanti will reopen its doors on February 18, 2023, welcoming the exhibition dedicated to two great masters of the Renaissance: Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa.

The exhibition is the first stage of a larger and more ambitious project entitled Renaissance in Ferrara 1471-1598 from Borso to Alfonso II d'Este, which will investigate the history-artistic period between the elevation of the city to a duchy and its passage from the Este dynasty to the direct control of the Papal States. The other moments of the route - ideally inaugurated by the exhibition Cosmè Tura and Francesco del Cossa. Art in Ferrara in the age of Borso d'Este, held at Palazzo dei Diamanti in 2007 - will be dedicated to the great protagonists of that season: Mazzolino and Ortolano, Dosso and Garofalo, Girolamo da Carpi and Bastianino.

More than one hundred works are displayed, coming from museums and collections from all around the world. They will offer the public a unique, and perhaps unrepeatable, opportunity to discover (or rediscover) the art of two great interpreters of the Italian Renaissance.

Endowed with an incredible compositional talent, extraordinary in quality and emotional expressiveness, Ercole de' Roberti (Ferrara 1450 - 1496) was the heir of the Officina Ferrarese, the youngest and smartest among those who partecipated in the cultural climate of Palazzo Schifanoia, in the last year of the government of Borso who just then received the title of Duke (1471). He worked several times in Bologna, where he left a deep mark, but there is no doubt that in Ferrara he found the most suitable environment in which to express himself during the last decade of his life, spent at the court.

It was Lorenzo Costa (Ferrara 1460 - Mantua 1535), ten years younger, to inherit it, continuing its style in his early works. During his long stay in Bologna, however, his painting style changed in the direction of greater softness, a calm and relaxed classicism. The world was changing, Leonardo and Perugino were imposing a new "way", which Costa immediately understood and of which he was among the greatest interpreters, even after moving to Mantua at the court of the Gonzaga.

The visitors will be able to follow Ercole's career through over twenty works (by far the largest number ever assembled), from his beginnings to his full maturity and no less rich the selection of works by Costa, which starts from his youth.

The two protagonists will be joined by noble masters and contemporary traveling companions: Mantegna, Cosmè Tura, Nicolò dell'Arca, Marco Zoppo that will be the starting point, while Antonio da Crevalcore, Guido Mazzoni, Boccaccio Boccaccino, Francesco Francia and Perugino will offer a side of dialogue along the exhibition path.

The exhibition will have its ideal prologue in the Pallazzo Schifanoia, where young Ercole de' Roberti debuted, in the Hall of Month, recreating the month of September.

GUIDED TOURS FOR INDIVIDUALS

"Tell the Renaissance" every Saturday at 5.00 p.m. and every Sunday and holidays at 12.00 p.m.
Booking required to: raccontarearte@gmail.com 
Adult rate - € 10,00.
Children 8 - 14 years old € 8,00
Children 0 - 7 years old free.