The Costabili collection or Costabili Gallery was a large art collection in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

in the 19th century, mainly consisting of Ferrarese art. Works from the collection were purchased by mid and late 19th-century art collectors like

Giovanni Morelli Giovanni Morelli (25 February 1816 – 28 February 1891) was an Italian art critic and political figure. As an art historian, he developed the "Morellian" technique of scholarship, identifying the characteristic "hands" of painters through s ...

Austen Henry Layard Sir Austen Henry Layard (; 5 March 18175 July 1894) was an English Assyriologist, traveller, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, politician and diplomat. He was born to a mostly English family in Paris and largely raised in It ...

and

Charles Eastlake Charles Locke Eastlake (11 March 1836 – 20 November 1906) was a British architect and furniture designer. His uncle, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (born in 1793), was a Keeper of the National Gallery, from 1843 to 1847, and from 1855 its fi ...

, eventually ending in many of the major collections of art around the world. A significant group of paintings ended up in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in London.

History

The collection was created by Marchese Giovanni Battista Costabili Contain, and continued by his grand nephew Marchese Giovanni Costabili Contain. By the late 1850s, the collection was deteriorating, with many works in poor condition, and the Marchese started selling works to pay of his debts. His son Marchese Alfonso Costabili Contain eventually sold the remainder of the collection in 1885. The Costabili collection also included a library with some 400 manuscripts, 400

incunable In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pr ...

s, and 800 books from the

Aldine Press The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was dat ...

. It was sold in four sales in 1858 and 1859.

Selected works

* ''Still life with plates'' by

Paolo Antonio Barbieri Paolo Antonio Barbieri (1603–1649) was an Italian painter who was the brother of Guercino. He was born at Cento, a village near Bologna. The subjects of his pictures are flowers, fruit, and game, but he particularly excelled in painting fish, wh ...

, sold by Sotheby's in 2008 for $181,000. * ''Saint Francis'' by

Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...

, now in the National Gallery * ''Deposizione '' by

Baldassarre Carrari the Elder Baldassarre Carrari the Elder (il Vecchio) was an Italian painter who worked at Forlì about the year 1354. Biography He is supposed to be the author of a fragment of a series of paintings which once adorned the Santa Maria in Schiavonia church. ...

* ''Santa Caterina martirizzata'' by

Michele Coltellini Michele Coltellini (1480–1542) was an Italian painter, active mainly in Ferrara. Biography He was a follower of Panetti and Garofalo, who lived in the 16th century. He is the author of a 'Dead Christ on the lap of the Virgin' in the Dresden G ...

, now in the

Musée Jacquemart-André The Musée Jacquemart-André ( en, Jacquemart-André Museum) is a private museum located at 158 Boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The museum was created from the private home of Édouard André (1833–1894) and Nélie Jacq ...

* ''Saint Sebastian'' by

Lorenzo Costa Lorenzo Costa (1460 – 5 March 1535) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. Biography He was born at Ferrara, but moved to Bologna by his early twenties, and was probably influenced by the Bolognese School. However, many artists worked i ...

, now in the

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (, ''Old Masters Gallery'') in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch and Flemish paintings. Outstandin ...

* ''Saint Jerome'' by

Bono da Ferrara Bono da Ferrara or Bono Ferrarese (active 1441–1461) was an Italians, Italian painter of the early-Renaissance period.: The National Gallery London painting of ''St Jerome in Landscape''. Biography He seems to have been the pupil of both Pisan ...

, now in the National Gallery * ''Madonna in adoration of the Christ Child'' by

Ortolano Ferrarese Ortolano was an Italian painter of the Ferrara School, active in the Renaissance period. Ticozzi cites his birth as ca. 1480. Biography He was born in Ferrara. He was baptized Giovanni Battista Benvenuti, and he was called L'Ortolano because hi ...

, now in the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

* ''Madonna and Child with the Donor, Pietro de' Lardi, Presented by Saint Nicholas'' by Master G.Z., now in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

* Unidentified work by

Ludovico Mazzolino Ludovico Mazzolino (1480 – c. 1528) - also known as Mazzolini da Ferrara, Lodovico Ferraresa, and Il Ferrarese - was an Italian Renaissance painter active in Ferrara and Bologna. Biography He was born and died in Ferrara. He appears to have ...

, now in the

Wawel Castle The Wawel Royal Castle (; ''Zamek Królewski na Wawelu'') and the Wawel Hill on which it sits constitute the most historically and culturally significant site in Poland. A fortified residency on the Vistula River in Kraków, it was established on ...

in Poland * ''Madonna and Child; Saint John the Baptist; Saint Jerome'' by

Sano di Pietro Sano di Pietro or Ansano di Pietro di Mencio (1405–1481) was an Italian painter of the Sienese school of painting. He was active for about half a century during the Quattrocento period, and his contemporaries included Giovanni di Paolo and Sas ...

, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art * ''Virgin and Child with Saints George and Anthony'' by

Pisanello Pisanello (c. 1380/1395c. 1450/1455), born Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattroc ...

, now in the National Gallery * Unidentified work by

Ercole Setti Ercole Setti (c.1530–1618) was an Italian engraver of the late-Renaissance period. Setti was born in Modena. His pen-and-ink drawings show a fine draughtsmanship without requiring cross-hatching. Like the later Gaetano Zompini, he made a ...

, now in the

Galleria Estense The Galleria Estense is an art gallery in the heart of Modena, centred around the collection of the d’Este family: rulers of Modena, Ferrara and Reggio from 1289 to 1796. Located on the top floor of the ''Palazzo dei Musei'', on the St. Augusti ...

* ''Saint Bernardino'' by

Benvenuto Tisi Benvenuto Tisi (or Il Garofalo) (1481September 6, 1559) was a Late-Renaissance-Mannerist Italian painter of the School of Ferrara. Garofalo's career began attached to the court of the Duke d'Este. His early works have been described as "idyllic ...

, now in the Alberto Saibene collection in Milan, and two other saints and a ''The Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and Peter and an Angel holding back a Curtain'' by the same painter * ''Saint Jerome'' by

Cosimo Tura Cosimo is the Italian form of the Greek name ''Kosmas'' (latinised as ''Cosmas''). Cosimo may refer to: Characters * Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, hero of Italo Calvino's 1957 novel ''The Baron in the Trees'' Given name Medici family * Cosimo d ...

, now in the National Gallery, and a ''Portrait of a Young Man'' in the Metropolitan Museum of Art File:Cosimo Tura Portrait of a Young Man (1450-52).jpg, ''Portrait of a Young Man'' by

File:Pisanello 014.jpg, ''Virgin and Child with Saints George and Anthony'' by

History

Selected works

Notes

Further reading