Francesco del
Cossa
(b Ferrara, c. 1435; d Bologna,
1476–7).
Italian painter. Together with Cosimo Tura and Ercole de’ Roberti, Cossa
was one of the most important painters working in Ferrara and Bologna in
the second half of the 15th century. With them he shared an expressive
use of line and solidity of form, but he also had a gift for decorative
and anecdotal scenes, most evident in the frescoes in the Palazzo
Schifanoia, Ferrara.