Italian painter of the early Renaissance, founder of the Ferrara school of painting, born in Ferrara. Between 1452 and 1456 he was probably in Venice and Padua; in Padua he may have studied with the Italian painter Andrea Mantegna.
In Ferrara he provided paintings for the cathedral (1458), the Biblioteca del Pico (1465-67), the Sacrati Chapel (1468), and the Belriguardo Chapel (1472). Tura was the official portraitist to the Este family, the ducal house of Ferrara. He used angular poses and elaborate patterns of drapery in his work, and the realism of his figures borders on the grotesque. Typical is his Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels (circa 1475, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).

Works