Towards the middle of the fifteenth century a new element was introduced into Bolognese art by the Ferrarese masters, whom the patronage of the Bentivoglio family attracted from the neighbouring city. The court of the Este princes was already one of the most brilliant in Italy, and had become a favourite centre for artists, who were employed to decorate the different palaces of the ducal house in the same way that Mantegna was engaged on the castles of the Gonzagas at Mantua. Piero della Francesca had himself painted in Duke Borso’s Schifanoia (Sans-Souci) palace, and both his presence and the all-pervading influence of Mantegna, who had known several of the best Ferrarese artists, had contributed in a large measure to mould the school of native artists. These different elements were now imported to Bologna by the Ferrara painters who migrated there. One of the first was Galasso Galassi, who painted the later scenes from the Passion in the church of Mezzaratta about the year 1450, and who may have been the painter of the graceful “Sposalizio,” which is one of the best-preserved frescoes still to be seen there. About the same time an artist of greater merit, Francesco Cossa, was commanded by Giovanni Bentivoglio to restore an ancient picture of Lippo known as the “Madonna del Baraccano,” and Ercole Grandi was employed on the frescoes of the Garganelli chapel in the church of San Pietro. With these Ferrara masters came a Paduan artist, also one of the painters of the Schifanoia, who had been trained in the school of Squarcione and had worked with Mantegna in the Eremitani. This was Marco Zoppo, who moved to Bologna in 1471, and remained there twenty years, during which period he painted many of his principal works, and probably became acquainted with the goldsmith, Francia, whose first master he is said, by some, to have been.[4] But the most important of all the painters who came to Bologna from Ferrara was Lorenzo Costa, whose friendship with Francia was productive of rich results, and with whom he lived for many years in a constant interchange of artistic ideas. Born at Ferrara in 1460, Costa came as a young man to Bologna and entered the service of Giovanni Bentivoglio II., who employed him to decorate his palace with scenes from the Iliad. During the next twenty years Costa was actively engaged in Bologna. In 1488 he finished an altar-piece for the chapel of the Bentivogli in the church of San Giacomo Maggiore, and a few years later painted the allegorical compositions representing “The Triumph of Life and Death,” and various other works in the great Basilica of San Petronio. In many of those we already see signs of new and higher qualities which were the direct fruit of Francia’s influence, although in technical acquirements the Bologna master was at that time still inferior to Costa. * * * * *