This exhibition explores art of the early Cinquecento in Ferrara, from 1505, when the duchy passed from Ercole d’Este to his son Alfonso, up until the death of the latter in 1534. Alfonso was a refined and ambitious patron, capable of renovating the private spaces of the court as well as the public spaces of the city. With the passing of the generation of artists such as Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de’
Roberti, Ferrara was confronted with the difficulty of replacing such high calibre talent. At the beginning of the 16th century, a new school emerged, more open to exchanges with other artistic centres, led by four key protagonists: Ludovico Mazzolino, a painter with a flair for the bizarre who oriented his language in the anti-classical sense; Giovanni Battista Benvenuti, called Ortolano, characterized by a convincing and sincere naturalism; Benvenuto Tisi, called Garofalo, the main local interpreter of Rapahel’s manner; and Giovanni Luteri, called Dosso, who developed an original, cultured and whimsical style which was influenced as much by Giorgione and Titian as by Michelangelo’s Rome. The more than 100 works on display allow you to travel through this incredibly rich period when the ancient and modern, the sacred and the profane, history and fable blend together in a figurative world which can be defined by a single word: Ferrarese.