Cosme Tura
(b Ferrara, ?1430; d Ferrara, April 1495).
Italian painter. He was court painter to the Este family of Ferrara
from 1458 until the mid-1480s. He was the first and one of the
greatest representatives of the Ferrarese school of painting, but
many of his most important works, including the decoration of the
library of Pico della Mirandola (1463–94), have been either
destroyed or dismantled, and some of his large-scale altarpieces are
divided between collections. His career is well recorded and
provides a vivid illustration of the role and duties of a
15th-century court artist.