‘Verie sweete and artificiall’: Lorenzo Costa

and the earliest viols

John BryanUniversity of Huddersfield,

UK& Rose Consort of Viols

Lorenzo Costa

Madonna and Child enthroned withSS. Augustine, Posidonius, John and Francis

Cappella di S. Agostino,

San Giovanni in Monte,

Bologna

Lorenzo Costa (c. 1460–1535)

• Trained in Ferrara• 1480s & 1490s commissions for Bentivoglio

family in Bologna• 1492–7 runs school of painting in Ferrara

with Francia• 1497 Madonna and Child for Ghedini chapel,

Bologna• 1504 Coronation of a Lady for Isabella d’Este• 1506 court painter at Mantua• 1509 citizen of Mantua

Lorenzo Costa

The Concert

National Gallery,London

Lorenzo Costa, Coronation of a Lady, Louvre, Paris

Intarsia in Isabella’s studiolo at Mantua

Isabella d’Este

• 1474 born in Ferrara

• 1490 marriesFrancesco Gonzagaof Mantua

• 1495 orders first viole

• 1499 is playing viola• 1504 commissions

Costa• 1519 Francesco dies• 1539 Isabella dies

Raphael

Baldassare Castiglione

(1478–1529)

Louvre, Paris