The idea that Cosme Tura designed sculptures is not new. Whether we look at the spiky, metallic fish of the National Gallery's Allegorical figure, the fictive reliefs around the Annunciation from Ferrara cathedral, or the 'bric-a-brac' which Ortolani described as filling the top of the Roverella altar-piece, his paintings are full of sculptures.' His figures are themselves inherently sculptural, the angular displacement of the limbs, frequent exaggeration of contrapposto and careful manipulation of the chiaroscuro defining the space they inhabit. It is also well known that Tura was contracted to create works in three dimensions. In the chapel of the villa of Belriguardo he was commissioned not only to paint eight lunettes of Evangelists and Fathers of the Church, but also to carry out extensive decorations in gilded and painted stucco and terracotta, which included 145 serafini, as well as animals and foliage.2 He also designed a large silver table service with various sculptural elements, such as flasks supported by 'wild men' ('homini Salvatichi'), griffins and satyrs." It is hardly surprising then that several attempts have been made to attribute sculptures to Tura, all of which remain unconvincing.4 It is my intention here to put forward two sculptures, both of which are still in Ferrara, which deserve serious consideration as having been designed, if not executed, by the master.

The Bolognese artist Francesco Raibolini, il Francia (c. 1450- 1517), is chiefly remembered as a painter, since almost all surviving works generally attributed to him are paintings or drawings.' Yet his practice of describing himself as 'goldsmith' ('aurifex' or 'aurifaber') when signing pictures and letters should remind us that painting formed only one, and not necessarily the most important, part of Francia's output. Francia can be shown to have been active also as goldsmith, medallist and designer of coins, niellist and, most relevantly here, as a sculptor. This article will examine the surviving evidence of his work in metals, and will propose that he may have made small bronzes of high quality.

In 1472 Ercole I d'Este, who had inherited the dukedom of Ferrara the previous year, sent a rather curious betrothal gift to Eleonora of Aragon in Naples - a double image of the duke and his illegitimate daughter, Lucrezia, by Cosme Tura, the artist's first documented portrait for his Este employers.' Although Tura had been installed as court artist for sixteen years, he is not known to have worked as a portraitist before this date, but from then on he seems to have begun to displace the resident portrait specialist, Baldassare d'Este, illegitimate half-brother of the duke. With a legitimate member of the Este household at last holding the reigns of power, Baldassare was sent back to his home town of Reggio Emilia in 1476, and his painting career went into decline. Meanwhile Tura took over the responsibility for portraying members of the Este family until his own retirement in 1485. He thus followed up the picture of Lucrezia with betrothal portraits of her half-sisters Isabella and Beatrice.' Although it is clear that the production of portraits became a key element within Tura's working life at court (and a satirical poem was even dedicated to his skills in this field),' it has proved remarkably difficult to identify examples.