The Circumcision
painter
Cosmè Tura
(Ferrara, about 1430 - 1495, Ferrara)
Dateabout 1470-1479
Place MadeFerrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Europe
MediumOil on panel
Dimensions38.7 x 38.1 cm (15 1/4 x 15 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberP15s3
eMuseum ID726712
EmbARK ObjectID11725
TMS Source ID908
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryTura set the circumcision of the infant Jesus in a compressed space filled with overlapping figures and furniture. Seated on his mother’s lap, the child twists away from the mohel; Joseph and the prophetess Anna witness the scene. Notice the energy generated by the long, expressive hands of each figure and the sharp, agitated folds of their clothing. Cosmè Tura achieved a great reputation working for the rulers and wealthy families of Ferrara (his home town). This painting was part of a large altarpiece commissioned by the Roverella family. The painted coral beads draped over the top of the carved tablet in the background are echoed in a nearby case of real beads. As you explore the galleries, look for other examples of arrangements created by Gardner that invite unexpected visual connections between works of art.
BibliographyNotesRobert H. Benson and Adolfo Venturi. Exhibition of Pictures, Drawings and Photographs of Works of the School of Ferrara-Bologna, 1450-1540. Exh. cat. (London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1894), p. xv (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the San Giorgio altarpiece, with two paintings in the Pinacoteca, Ferrara and another painting in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge).
Adolfo Venturi. "L'arte emiliana (al Burlington Fine-Arts Club di Londra)." Archivio storico dell'arte 7 (1894), pp. 90-94. (as part of the predella of the Saint Maurelius altarpiece, formerly in the church of San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara)
Gustave Gruyer. L'Art Ferrarais a l'epoque des princes d'Este, Volume 2. (Paris, 1897), pp. 71, 82. (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Emil Jacobsen. "Die Gemäldegalerie im Ateneo zu Ferrara." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 23 (1900), p. 360, note 4. (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 8. (as by Cosimo Tura)
Bernhard Berenson. North Italian Painters of the Renaissance. (New York, 1907), p. 297 (as by Cosimo Tura)
Lionel Cust. "La collection de M. R.-H. Benson." Les arts 6 (October 1907), p. 22 (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of a series of paintings formerly in San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara)
Adolfo Venturi. "Le opere de' pittori ferraresi del '400 secondo il catalogo di Bernardo Berenson." L'arte 11 (1908), pp. 420-21 (rejects association of this panel with the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Edmund G. Gardner. The Painters of the School of Ferrara. London, 1911, pp. 28, 208. (as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. Tancred Borenius (ed.) 2nd ed., Vol. 2 (London, 1912) pp. 230–31 n. 1 (as Cosimo Tura; as a companion painting to the Adoration of the Magi [Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA] and the Flight into Egypt [Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY])
Adolfo Venturi. "La pittura del Quattrocento." Storia dell'arte italiana. Vol. 7, part 3, (Milan, 1914), p. 546 (as by Cosme Tura; as part of an altarpiece with paintings of the heads of Saints Peter and John [Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia]).
Paul Schubring. Cassoni. Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Fruehrenaissance (Leipzig, 1915), p. 352, pl. 561. (as Cosimo Tura; as originally set into a piece of church furniture)
Otto Härtzsch. Katalog der echten und fälschlich zugeschriebenen Werke des Cosimo Tura. PhD diss. (Universität Hamburg. Hamburg, 1931), pp. 381-82.
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of the Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 381-82 (as Cosme Tura).
Adolfo Venturi. North Italian Painting of the Quattrocento: Emilia. (Florence, 1931?), pp. 39–40 (as Cosme Tura, as dated to the same period as the Roverella altarpiece [a second altarpiece from San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara]).
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance (Oxford, 1932), p. 580. (as Cosimo Tura)
Roberto Longhi. Officina ferrarese (Rome, 1934), pp. 37–39, (as Cosme Tura; as one of seven tondi of which three survive that constitute the middle part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece).
Bernard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere, con un indice dei luogi. Trans. Emilio Cecchi (Milan, 1936), p. 499. (as Cosimo Tura)
Otto Härtzsch. "Cosimo Tura." Pantheon 26 (1940), pp. 156-61.
Sergio Ortolani. Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa, Ercole de' Roberti (Milan, 1941), pp. 56, 67-68 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of a lost altarpiece; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Stuart Preston. "The Circumcision" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 15.
Benedict Nicolson. The Painters of Ferrara (London, 1950), p. 18 (as Cosme Tura; as part of a lost altarpiece dating after the Roverella altarpiece)
Martin Davies. The Earlier Italian Schools. London, 1951, p. 399
Alberto Neppi. Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1952), pp. 65, 74-75, 136 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi from the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Roberto Longhi. Opere complete di Roberto Longhi. Vol. 5, Officina ferrarese: 1934 (Florence, 1956), p. 25 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Mario Salmi. Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1957), pp. 34–36 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi from the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Eberhard Ruhmer. Tura: Paintings and Drawings (New York, 1958), pp. 41, 82, 177-78. (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi; as not associated with the Roverella altarpiece)
Roberto Salvini and Leone Traverso. The Predella from the XIIIth to the XVIth Centuries (London, 1960), pp. 205–207, ill. (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Piero Bianconi. Tutta la pittura di Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1963), pp. 36, 47-48. (as Cosme Tura; as one of a group of three extant tondi; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Rollin Hadley. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 7, no. 10 (3 Nov. 1963), p. 2.
Rollin Hadley. "Giovanni Di Paolo." Fenway Court (Oct. 1967), p. 49.
Eberhard Ruhmer "Tura." Encyclopedia of World Art 14 (New York, 1967), pp. 340, 343 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi; as from the Roverella altarpiece)
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 205 (as Cosme Tura)
Elizabeth E. Gardner. "Dipinti rinascimentali del Metropolitan Museum nelle carte di G.B. Cavalcaselle." Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte 8 (1972), p. 73.
Franco Pesenti. An Illustrated Inventory of Famous Dismembered Works of Art: European Painting (Paris, 1974), pp. 42-45, fig. 6.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 263-64. (as Cosme Tura)
Rosemarie Molajoli. L'opera completa di Cosmè Tura e i grandi pittori ferraresi del suo tempo: Francesco Cossa e Ercole de' Roberti (Milan, 1974) pp. 85–86, 88 (as Cosme Tura; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Everett Fahy. "Italian Paintings at Fenway Court and Elsewhere." Connoisseur 198 (May 1978), pp. 37-39, pl. 12. (as Cosme Tura; as possibly from the Roverella altarpiece)
Keith Christiansen. "Early Renaissance Narrative Painting in Italy." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41 (Fall 1983), pp. 36, pl. 32. (as Cosimo Tura)
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, North Italian School (New York, 1986), pp. 65–67 (as one of three tondi; as from the Roverella altarpiece)
Martin Davies. The Earlier Italian Schools. Rev. ed. (London, 1987), pp. 513-14 (as Cosme Tura; as possibly not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner 1887-1924 (Boston, 1987), p. 371.
Joseph Manca. "Cosme Tura, The Roverella Altarpiece." in James Vinson (ed.). International Dictionary of Art and Artists (Chicago, 1990), p. 145. (as Cosme Tura; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Kristen Lippincott. "Cosimo Tura." in Jane Turner (ed.) The Dictionary of Art 31, (New York, 1996), p. 431 (as Cosimo Tura; as one of three extant tondi; not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. Cosme Tura of Ferrara: Style, Politics and the Renaissance City, 1450-1495 (New Haven, 1997), pp. 107, 114, 183 note 50, pl. 87, 89. (as Cosme Tura; as part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Joseph Manca. Cosmè Tura: The Life and Art of a Painter in Estense Ferrara (Oxford, 2000), pp. 72, 96-98, n. 5, pl. 3 (as Cosme Tura; as not impossible that it once formed a part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. "Cosme Tura and Court Culture" in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 21-22 (as part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. "The Roverella Altarpiece." in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 219-25, 226-28, n. 10, ill. (as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Alan Chong. "Victorians and the Art of Ferrara." in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 173-75, 183, plates 81-83.
Jill Dunkerton. "Cosme Tura's Painting Technique" in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 141-42 (as not part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece; as part of a piece of ecclesiastical furniture)
Joseph Manca. "The Annunciation with Saints Francis and Louis of Toulouse." in Miklos Boskovits and David Alan Brown (eds.). Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century (Washington, D.C., 2003), pp. 663 and 665 note 4 (as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Magali Bourbon. Saint Jacques de Cosme Tura. Exh cat. (Caen: Musee des Beaux-Arts, 2006), pp. 18-19, pl. 13 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Marcello Toffanello "The Circumcision." in Mauro Natale (ed.). Cosmè Tura e Francesco del Cossa. L'arte a Ferrara nell'età di Borso d'Este. Exh. cat. (Palazzo dei Diamanti and Palazzo Schifanoia: Ferrara, 2007), p. 340, n. 79, ill. (as Cosme Tura)Robert H. Benson and Adolfo Venturi. Exhibition of Pictures, Drawings and Photographs of Works of the School of Ferrara-Bologna, 1450-1540. Exh. cat. (London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1894), p. xv (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the San Giorgio altarpiece, with two paintings in the Pinacoteca, Ferrara and another painting in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge).
Adolfo Venturi. "L'arte emiliana (al Burlington Fine-Arts Club di Londra)." Archivio storico dell'arte 7 (1894), pp. 90-94. (as part of the predella of the Saint Maurelius altarpiece, formerly in the church of San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara)
Gustave Gruyer. L'Art Ferrarais a l'epoque des princes d'Este, Volume 2. (Paris, 1897), pp. 71, 82. (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Emil Jacobsen. "Die Gemäldegalerie im Ateneo zu Ferrara." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 23 (1900), p. 360, note 4. (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 8. (as by Cosimo Tura)
Bernhard Berenson. North Italian Painters of the Renaissance. (New York, 1907), p. 297 (as by Cosimo Tura)
Lionel Cust. "La collection de M. R.-H. Benson." Les arts 6 (October 1907), p. 22 (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of a series of paintings formerly in San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara)
Adolfo Venturi. "Le opere de' pittori ferraresi del '400 secondo il catalogo di Bernardo Berenson." L'arte 11 (1908), pp. 420-21 (rejects association of this panel with the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Edmund G. Gardner. The Painters of the School of Ferrara. London, 1911, pp. 28, 208. (as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. Tancred Borenius (ed.) 2nd ed., Vol. 2 (London, 1912) pp. 230–31 n. 1 (as Cosimo Tura; as a companion painting to the Adoration of the Magi [Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA] and the Flight into Egypt [Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY])
Adolfo Venturi. "La pittura del Quattrocento." Storia dell'arte italiana. Vol. 7, part 3, (Milan, 1914), p. 546 (as by Cosme Tura; as part of an altarpiece with paintings of the heads of Saints Peter and John [Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia]).
Paul Schubring. Cassoni. Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Fruehrenaissance (Leipzig, 1915), p. 352, pl. 561. (as Cosimo Tura; as originally set into a piece of church furniture)
Otto Härtzsch. Katalog der echten und fälschlich zugeschriebenen Werke des Cosimo Tura. PhD diss. (Universität Hamburg. Hamburg, 1931), pp. 381-82.
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of the Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 381-82 (as Cosme Tura).
Adolfo Venturi. North Italian Painting of the Quattrocento: Emilia. (Florence, 1931?), pp. 39–40 (as Cosme Tura, as dated to the same period as the Roverella altarpiece [a second altarpiece from San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara]).
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance (Oxford, 1932), p. 580. (as Cosimo Tura)
Roberto Longhi. Officina ferrarese (Rome, 1934), pp. 37–39, (as Cosme Tura; as one of seven tondi of which three survive that constitute the middle part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece).
Bernard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere, con un indice dei luogi. Trans. Emilio Cecchi (Milan, 1936), p. 499. (as Cosimo Tura)
Otto Härtzsch. "Cosimo Tura." Pantheon 26 (1940), pp. 156-61.
Sergio Ortolani. Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa, Ercole de' Roberti (Milan, 1941), pp. 56, 67-68 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of a lost altarpiece; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Stuart Preston. "The Circumcision" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 15.
Benedict Nicolson. The Painters of Ferrara (London, 1950), p. 18 (as Cosme Tura; as part of a lost altarpiece dating after the Roverella altarpiece)
Martin Davies. The Earlier Italian Schools. London, 1951, p. 399
Alberto Neppi. Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1952), pp. 65, 74-75, 136 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi from the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Roberto Longhi. Opere complete di Roberto Longhi. Vol. 5, Officina ferrarese: 1934 (Florence, 1956), p. 25 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Mario Salmi. Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1957), pp. 34–36 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi from the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Eberhard Ruhmer. Tura: Paintings and Drawings (New York, 1958), pp. 41, 82, 177-78. (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi; as not associated with the Roverella altarpiece)
Roberto Salvini and Leone Traverso. The Predella from the XIIIth to the XVIth Centuries (London, 1960), pp. 205–207, ill. (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Piero Bianconi. Tutta la pittura di Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1963), pp. 36, 47-48. (as Cosme Tura; as one of a group of three extant tondi; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Rollin Hadley. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 7, no. 10 (3 Nov. 1963), p. 2.
Rollin Hadley. "Giovanni Di Paolo." Fenway Court (Oct. 1967), p. 49.
Eberhard Ruhmer "Tura." Encyclopedia of World Art 14 (New York, 1967), pp. 340, 343 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi; as from the Roverella altarpiece)
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 205 (as Cosme Tura)
Elizabeth E. Gardner. "Dipinti rinascimentali del Metropolitan Museum nelle carte di G.B. Cavalcaselle." Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte 8 (1972), p. 73.
Franco Pesenti. An Illustrated Inventory of Famous Dismembered Works of Art: European Painting (Paris, 1974), pp. 42-45, fig. 6.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 263-64. (as Cosme Tura)
Rosemarie Molajoli. L'opera completa di Cosmè Tura e i grandi pittori ferraresi del suo tempo: Francesco Cossa e Ercole de' Roberti (Milan, 1974) pp. 85–86, 88 (as Cosme Tura; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Everett Fahy. "Italian Paintings at Fenway Court and Elsewhere." Connoisseur 198 (May 1978), pp. 37-39, pl. 12. (as Cosme Tura; as possibly from the Roverella altarpiece)
Keith Christiansen. "Early Renaissance Narrative Painting in Italy." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41 (Fall 1983), pp. 36, pl. 32. (as Cosimo Tura)
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, North Italian School (New York, 1986), pp. 65–67 (as one of three tondi; as from the Roverella altarpiece)
Martin Davies. The Earlier Italian Schools. Rev. ed. (London, 1987), pp. 513-14 (as Cosme Tura; as possibly not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner 1887-1924 (Boston, 1987), p. 371.
Joseph Manca. "Cosme Tura, The Roverella Altarpiece." in James Vinson (ed.). International Dictionary of Art and Artists (Chicago, 1990), p. 145. (as Cosme Tura; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Kristen Lippincott. "Cosimo Tura." in Jane Turner (ed.) The Dictionary of Art 31, (New York, 1996), p. 431 (as Cosimo Tura; as one of three extant tondi; not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. Cosme Tura of Ferrara: Style, Politics and the Renaissance City, 1450-1495 (New Haven, 1997), pp. 107, 114, 183 note 50, pl. 87, 89. (as Cosme Tura; as part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Joseph Manca. Cosmè Tura: The Life and Art of a Painter in Estense Ferrara (Oxford, 2000), pp. 72, 96-98, n. 5, pl. 3 (as Cosme Tura; as not impossible that it once formed a part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. "Cosme Tura and Court Culture" in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 21-22 (as part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. "The Roverella Altarpiece." in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 219-25, 226-28, n. 10, ill. (as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Alan Chong. "Victorians and the Art of Ferrara." in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 173-75, 183, plates 81-83.
Jill Dunkerton. "Cosme Tura's Painting Technique" in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 141-42 (as not part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece; as part of a piece of ecclesiastical furniture)
Joseph Manca. "The Annunciation with Saints Francis and Louis of Toulouse." in Miklos Boskovits and David Alan Brown (eds.). Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century (Washington, D.C., 2003), pp. 663 and 665 note 4 (as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Magali Bourbon. Saint Jacques de Cosme Tura. Exh cat. (Caen: Musee des Beaux-Arts, 2006), pp. 18-19, pl. 13 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Marcello Toffanello "The Circumcision." in Mauro Natale (ed.). Cosmè Tura e Francesco del Cossa. L'arte a Ferrara nell'età di Borso d'Este. Exh. cat. (Palazzo dei Diamanti and Palazzo Schifanoia: Ferrara, 2007), p. 340, n. 79, ill. (as Cosme Tura)
Adolfo Venturi. "L'arte emiliana (al Burlington Fine-Arts Club di Londra)." Archivio storico dell'arte 7 (1894), pp. 90-94. (as part of the predella of the Saint Maurelius altarpiece, formerly in the church of San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara)
Gustave Gruyer. L'Art Ferrarais a l'epoque des princes d'Este, Volume 2. (Paris, 1897), pp. 71, 82. (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Emil Jacobsen. "Die Gemäldegalerie im Ateneo zu Ferrara." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 23 (1900), p. 360, note 4. (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 8. (as by Cosimo Tura)
Bernhard Berenson. North Italian Painters of the Renaissance. (New York, 1907), p. 297 (as by Cosimo Tura)
Lionel Cust. "La collection de M. R.-H. Benson." Les arts 6 (October 1907), p. 22 (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of a series of paintings formerly in San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara)
Adolfo Venturi. "Le opere de' pittori ferraresi del '400 secondo il catalogo di Bernardo Berenson." L'arte 11 (1908), pp. 420-21 (rejects association of this panel with the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Edmund G. Gardner. The Painters of the School of Ferrara. London, 1911, pp. 28, 208. (as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. Tancred Borenius (ed.) 2nd ed., Vol. 2 (London, 1912) pp. 230–31 n. 1 (as Cosimo Tura; as a companion painting to the Adoration of the Magi [Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA] and the Flight into Egypt [Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY])
Adolfo Venturi. "La pittura del Quattrocento." Storia dell'arte italiana. Vol. 7, part 3, (Milan, 1914), p. 546 (as by Cosme Tura; as part of an altarpiece with paintings of the heads of Saints Peter and John [Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia]).
Paul Schubring. Cassoni. Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Fruehrenaissance (Leipzig, 1915), p. 352, pl. 561. (as Cosimo Tura; as originally set into a piece of church furniture)
Otto Härtzsch. Katalog der echten und fälschlich zugeschriebenen Werke des Cosimo Tura. PhD diss. (Universität Hamburg. Hamburg, 1931), pp. 381-82.
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of the Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 381-82 (as Cosme Tura).
Adolfo Venturi. North Italian Painting of the Quattrocento: Emilia. (Florence, 1931?), pp. 39–40 (as Cosme Tura, as dated to the same period as the Roverella altarpiece [a second altarpiece from San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara]).
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance (Oxford, 1932), p. 580. (as Cosimo Tura)
Roberto Longhi. Officina ferrarese (Rome, 1934), pp. 37–39, (as Cosme Tura; as one of seven tondi of which three survive that constitute the middle part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece).
Bernard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere, con un indice dei luogi. Trans. Emilio Cecchi (Milan, 1936), p. 499. (as Cosimo Tura)
Otto Härtzsch. "Cosimo Tura." Pantheon 26 (1940), pp. 156-61.
Sergio Ortolani. Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa, Ercole de' Roberti (Milan, 1941), pp. 56, 67-68 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of a lost altarpiece; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Stuart Preston. "The Circumcision" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 15.
Benedict Nicolson. The Painters of Ferrara (London, 1950), p. 18 (as Cosme Tura; as part of a lost altarpiece dating after the Roverella altarpiece)
Martin Davies. The Earlier Italian Schools. London, 1951, p. 399
Alberto Neppi. Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1952), pp. 65, 74-75, 136 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi from the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Roberto Longhi. Opere complete di Roberto Longhi. Vol. 5, Officina ferrarese: 1934 (Florence, 1956), p. 25 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Mario Salmi. Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1957), pp. 34–36 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi from the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Eberhard Ruhmer. Tura: Paintings and Drawings (New York, 1958), pp. 41, 82, 177-78. (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi; as not associated with the Roverella altarpiece)
Roberto Salvini and Leone Traverso. The Predella from the XIIIth to the XVIth Centuries (London, 1960), pp. 205–207, ill. (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Piero Bianconi. Tutta la pittura di Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1963), pp. 36, 47-48. (as Cosme Tura; as one of a group of three extant tondi; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Rollin Hadley. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 7, no. 10 (3 Nov. 1963), p. 2.
Rollin Hadley. "Giovanni Di Paolo." Fenway Court (Oct. 1967), p. 49.
Eberhard Ruhmer "Tura." Encyclopedia of World Art 14 (New York, 1967), pp. 340, 343 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi; as from the Roverella altarpiece)
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 205 (as Cosme Tura)
Elizabeth E. Gardner. "Dipinti rinascimentali del Metropolitan Museum nelle carte di G.B. Cavalcaselle." Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte 8 (1972), p. 73.
Franco Pesenti. An Illustrated Inventory of Famous Dismembered Works of Art: European Painting (Paris, 1974), pp. 42-45, fig. 6.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 263-64. (as Cosme Tura)
Rosemarie Molajoli. L'opera completa di Cosmè Tura e i grandi pittori ferraresi del suo tempo: Francesco Cossa e Ercole de' Roberti (Milan, 1974) pp. 85–86, 88 (as Cosme Tura; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Everett Fahy. "Italian Paintings at Fenway Court and Elsewhere." Connoisseur 198 (May 1978), pp. 37-39, pl. 12. (as Cosme Tura; as possibly from the Roverella altarpiece)
Keith Christiansen. "Early Renaissance Narrative Painting in Italy." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41 (Fall 1983), pp. 36, pl. 32. (as Cosimo Tura)
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, North Italian School (New York, 1986), pp. 65–67 (as one of three tondi; as from the Roverella altarpiece)
Martin Davies. The Earlier Italian Schools. Rev. ed. (London, 1987), pp. 513-14 (as Cosme Tura; as possibly not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner 1887-1924 (Boston, 1987), p. 371.
Joseph Manca. "Cosme Tura, The Roverella Altarpiece." in James Vinson (ed.). International Dictionary of Art and Artists (Chicago, 1990), p. 145. (as Cosme Tura; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Kristen Lippincott. "Cosimo Tura." in Jane Turner (ed.) The Dictionary of Art 31, (New York, 1996), p. 431 (as Cosimo Tura; as one of three extant tondi; not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. Cosme Tura of Ferrara: Style, Politics and the Renaissance City, 1450-1495 (New Haven, 1997), pp. 107, 114, 183 note 50, pl. 87, 89. (as Cosme Tura; as part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Joseph Manca. Cosmè Tura: The Life and Art of a Painter in Estense Ferrara (Oxford, 2000), pp. 72, 96-98, n. 5, pl. 3 (as Cosme Tura; as not impossible that it once formed a part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. "Cosme Tura and Court Culture" in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 21-22 (as part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. "The Roverella Altarpiece." in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 219-25, 226-28, n. 10, ill. (as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Alan Chong. "Victorians and the Art of Ferrara." in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 173-75, 183, plates 81-83.
Jill Dunkerton. "Cosme Tura's Painting Technique" in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 141-42 (as not part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece; as part of a piece of ecclesiastical furniture)
Joseph Manca. "The Annunciation with Saints Francis and Louis of Toulouse." in Miklos Boskovits and David Alan Brown (eds.). Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century (Washington, D.C., 2003), pp. 663 and 665 note 4 (as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Magali Bourbon. Saint Jacques de Cosme Tura. Exh cat. (Caen: Musee des Beaux-Arts, 2006), pp. 18-19, pl. 13 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Marcello Toffanello "The Circumcision." in Mauro Natale (ed.). Cosmè Tura e Francesco del Cossa. L'arte a Ferrara nell'età di Borso d'Este. Exh. cat. (Palazzo dei Diamanti and Palazzo Schifanoia: Ferrara, 2007), p. 340, n. 79, ill. (as Cosme Tura)Robert H. Benson and Adolfo Venturi. Exhibition of Pictures, Drawings and Photographs of Works of the School of Ferrara-Bologna, 1450-1540. Exh. cat. (London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1894), p. xv (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the San Giorgio altarpiece, with two paintings in the Pinacoteca, Ferrara and another painting in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge).
Adolfo Venturi. "L'arte emiliana (al Burlington Fine-Arts Club di Londra)." Archivio storico dell'arte 7 (1894), pp. 90-94. (as part of the predella of the Saint Maurelius altarpiece, formerly in the church of San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara)
Gustave Gruyer. L'Art Ferrarais a l'epoque des princes d'Este, Volume 2. (Paris, 1897), pp. 71, 82. (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Emil Jacobsen. "Die Gemäldegalerie im Ateneo zu Ferrara." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 23 (1900), p. 360, note 4. (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 8. (as by Cosimo Tura)
Bernhard Berenson. North Italian Painters of the Renaissance. (New York, 1907), p. 297 (as by Cosimo Tura)
Lionel Cust. "La collection de M. R.-H. Benson." Les arts 6 (October 1907), p. 22 (as by Cosimo Tura; as part of a series of paintings formerly in San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara)
Adolfo Venturi. "Le opere de' pittori ferraresi del '400 secondo il catalogo di Bernardo Berenson." L'arte 11 (1908), pp. 420-21 (rejects association of this panel with the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Edmund G. Gardner. The Painters of the School of Ferrara. London, 1911, pp. 28, 208. (as part of the predella of the San Giorgio altarpiece)
Joseph Archer Crowe and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. Tancred Borenius (ed.) 2nd ed., Vol. 2 (London, 1912) pp. 230–31 n. 1 (as Cosimo Tura; as a companion painting to the Adoration of the Magi [Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA] and the Flight into Egypt [Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY])
Adolfo Venturi. "La pittura del Quattrocento." Storia dell'arte italiana. Vol. 7, part 3, (Milan, 1914), p. 546 (as by Cosme Tura; as part of an altarpiece with paintings of the heads of Saints Peter and John [Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia]).
Paul Schubring. Cassoni. Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Fruehrenaissance (Leipzig, 1915), p. 352, pl. 561. (as Cosimo Tura; as originally set into a piece of church furniture)
Otto Härtzsch. Katalog der echten und fälschlich zugeschriebenen Werke des Cosimo Tura. PhD diss. (Universität Hamburg. Hamburg, 1931), pp. 381-82.
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of the Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 381-82 (as Cosme Tura).
Adolfo Venturi. North Italian Painting of the Quattrocento: Emilia. (Florence, 1931?), pp. 39–40 (as Cosme Tura, as dated to the same period as the Roverella altarpiece [a second altarpiece from San Giorgio fuori la mura, Ferrara]).
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance (Oxford, 1932), p. 580. (as Cosimo Tura)
Roberto Longhi. Officina ferrarese (Rome, 1934), pp. 37–39, (as Cosme Tura; as one of seven tondi of which three survive that constitute the middle part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece).
Bernard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere, con un indice dei luogi. Trans. Emilio Cecchi (Milan, 1936), p. 499. (as Cosimo Tura)
Otto Härtzsch. "Cosimo Tura." Pantheon 26 (1940), pp. 156-61.
Sergio Ortolani. Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa, Ercole de' Roberti (Milan, 1941), pp. 56, 67-68 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of a lost altarpiece; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Stuart Preston. "The Circumcision" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 15.
Benedict Nicolson. The Painters of Ferrara (London, 1950), p. 18 (as Cosme Tura; as part of a lost altarpiece dating after the Roverella altarpiece)
Martin Davies. The Earlier Italian Schools. London, 1951, p. 399
Alberto Neppi. Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1952), pp. 65, 74-75, 136 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi from the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Roberto Longhi. Opere complete di Roberto Longhi. Vol. 5, Officina ferrarese: 1934 (Florence, 1956), p. 25 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Mario Salmi. Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1957), pp. 34–36 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi from the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Eberhard Ruhmer. Tura: Paintings and Drawings (New York, 1958), pp. 41, 82, 177-78. (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi; as not associated with the Roverella altarpiece)
Roberto Salvini and Leone Traverso. The Predella from the XIIIth to the XVIth Centuries (London, 1960), pp. 205–207, ill. (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Piero Bianconi. Tutta la pittura di Cosmè Tura (Milan, 1963), pp. 36, 47-48. (as Cosme Tura; as one of a group of three extant tondi; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Rollin Hadley. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 7, no. 10 (3 Nov. 1963), p. 2.
Rollin Hadley. "Giovanni Di Paolo." Fenway Court (Oct. 1967), p. 49.
Eberhard Ruhmer "Tura." Encyclopedia of World Art 14 (New York, 1967), pp. 340, 343 (as Cosme Tura; as one of three extant tondi; as from the Roverella altarpiece)
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 205 (as Cosme Tura)
Elizabeth E. Gardner. "Dipinti rinascimentali del Metropolitan Museum nelle carte di G.B. Cavalcaselle." Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte 8 (1972), p. 73.
Franco Pesenti. An Illustrated Inventory of Famous Dismembered Works of Art: European Painting (Paris, 1974), pp. 42-45, fig. 6.
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 263-64. (as Cosme Tura)
Rosemarie Molajoli. L'opera completa di Cosmè Tura e i grandi pittori ferraresi del suo tempo: Francesco Cossa e Ercole de' Roberti (Milan, 1974) pp. 85–86, 88 (as Cosme Tura; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Everett Fahy. "Italian Paintings at Fenway Court and Elsewhere." Connoisseur 198 (May 1978), pp. 37-39, pl. 12. (as Cosme Tura; as possibly from the Roverella altarpiece)
Keith Christiansen. "Early Renaissance Narrative Painting in Italy." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 41 (Fall 1983), pp. 36, pl. 32. (as Cosimo Tura)
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, North Italian School (New York, 1986), pp. 65–67 (as one of three tondi; as from the Roverella altarpiece)
Martin Davies. The Earlier Italian Schools. Rev. ed. (London, 1987), pp. 513-14 (as Cosme Tura; as possibly not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner 1887-1924 (Boston, 1987), p. 371.
Joseph Manca. "Cosme Tura, The Roverella Altarpiece." in James Vinson (ed.). International Dictionary of Art and Artists (Chicago, 1990), p. 145. (as Cosme Tura; as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Kristen Lippincott. "Cosimo Tura." in Jane Turner (ed.) The Dictionary of Art 31, (New York, 1996), p. 431 (as Cosimo Tura; as one of three extant tondi; not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. Cosme Tura of Ferrara: Style, Politics and the Renaissance City, 1450-1495 (New Haven, 1997), pp. 107, 114, 183 note 50, pl. 87, 89. (as Cosme Tura; as part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Joseph Manca. Cosmè Tura: The Life and Art of a Painter in Estense Ferrara (Oxford, 2000), pp. 72, 96-98, n. 5, pl. 3 (as Cosme Tura; as not impossible that it once formed a part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. "Cosme Tura and Court Culture" in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 21-22 (as part of the Roverella altarpiece)
Stephen J. Campbell. "The Roverella Altarpiece." in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 219-25, 226-28, n. 10, ill. (as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Alan Chong. "Victorians and the Art of Ferrara." in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 173-75, 183, plates 81-83.
Jill Dunkerton. "Cosme Tura's Painting Technique" in Stephen Campbell and Alan Chong. Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2002), pp. 141-42 (as not part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece; as part of a piece of ecclesiastical furniture)
Joseph Manca. "The Annunciation with Saints Francis and Louis of Toulouse." in Miklos Boskovits and David Alan Brown (eds.). Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century (Washington, D.C., 2003), pp. 663 and 665 note 4 (as not from the Roverella altarpiece)
Magali Bourbon. Saint Jacques de Cosme Tura. Exh cat. (Caen: Musee des Beaux-Arts, 2006), pp. 18-19, pl. 13 (as Cosme Tura; as part of the predella of the Roverella altarpiece)
Marcello Toffanello "The Circumcision." in Mauro Natale (ed.). Cosmè Tura e Francesco del Cossa. L'arte a Ferrara nell'età di Borso d'Este. Exh. cat. (Palazzo dei Diamanti and Palazzo Schifanoia: Ferrara, 2007), p. 340, n. 79, ill. (as Cosme Tura)
ProvenanceNotesCollection of Antonio Publicola, Prince of Santa Croce (1817-1867), Rome.
By descent to Valeria Mary Publicola, Marchesa Passari Venturi Gallerani (b. 1853), Rome, by 1894.
By descent to Contessa Passari Venturi Gallerani, Rome.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the collection of Contessa Passari through the art historian and archaelogist Richard Norton (1872–1918), Rome, January 1901, for 27,000 lire.
By descent to Valeria Mary Publicola, Marchesa Passari Venturi Gallerani (b. 1853), Rome, by 1894.
By descent to Contessa Passari Venturi Gallerani, Rome.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the collection of Contessa Passari through the art historian and archaelogist Richard Norton (1872–1918), Rome, January 1901, for 27,000 lire.
Object/Provenance
