The Muse Terpsichore

The panel originally was part of the decoration of the studiolo in Palazzo Belfiore near Ferrara, painted in the mid-fifteenth century for Lionello and Borso d’Este, lords of Ferrara.
The stylistic features of Cosmè Tura – the major representative of the Renaissance pictorial school of Ferrara – emerge clearly in the dancing putti with their expressive faces, in the attractive drapery of the blue mantle which covers the legs of the Muse, her red shoes projecting from the step of the throne and in the barren countryside in the background. By contrast, the hand of a different artist has been identified in the upper part of the panel, in the sweet and conventional face of the Muse and her rigidly posed bust. This may be the work of Angelo Maccagnino from Siena, the painter originally chosen to decorate the studiolo of Belfiore.