The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (118 page)

Cosmati work
.

A type of coloured decorative inlay work of stone and glass that flourished mainly in Rome between
c.
1100 and 1300. It is characterized by the use of small pieces of coloured stone and glass in combination with strips of white marble to produce geometrical designs. The term derives from two craftsmen called Cosmas, whose names are inscribed on several works, but there were several families of ‘Cosmati’ workers and many individual craftsmen. Cosmati work was applied to church furnishings such as tombs and pulpits and was also used for architectural decoration. The style spread as far as England, for example in the tomb of Henry III in Westminster Abbey (
c.
1280), executed by imported Italian craftsmen.

 
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(
c.
1435–
c.
1477).
Italian painter, active mainly in Ferrara, where with Cosimo
Tura
and Ercole de'
Roberti
he was the leading artist of the period. His style has many affinities with that of Tura and the same background of development from
Mantegna
and
Piero della Francesca
, but Cossa's work reveals a more genial temperament and relaxed urbanity. This found expression in the delightful frescos of the
Months
in the Palazzo Schifanoia at Ferrara; Cossa, Roberti, and Tura are all thought to have contributed to the scheme, but Cossa seems to have been the leading master. In the early 1470s he moved to Bologna, where he painted an altarpiece for the Griffini Chapel in the church of S. Petronio (1473); the central panel is in the National Gallery, London.

 
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(
c.
1460–1535).
Italian painter. He probably trained in Ferrara and his early work was much influenced by
Tura
and Ercole de'
Roberti
. By 1483 he had settled in Bologna, where he entered into partnership with
Francia
and worked for the ruling Bentivoglio family. In 1504–5 he painted two allegories for Isabella d'
Este
(Louvre, Paris) and in 1507 he succeeded
Mantegna
as court painter at Mantua. He was the leading artist there until the arrival of
Giulio Romano
in 1524, but little of his large-scale work survives. His mature style is often rather sweetly
Peruginesque
, with a delicate feeling for landscape, and has been suggested as one of the sources of
Giorgione's
work. There are good examples of Costa's work in the National Gallery, London, including
The Concert
, one of the first examples of a type of picture (a close-up of a group of musicians) that was later to have a considerable vogue.

 
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(1742–1821).
English
miniaturist
, a pupil of
Hudson
. A friend of the Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent), Cosway was by far the most fashionable miniature painter of his day, imparting to sitters an air of great elegance. The larger portraits in oils that he occasionally attempted are considered less successful. In 1781 he married
Maria Hadfield
(1759–1838), who was also a miniaturist.

 
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(1726–70).
English portrait painter, a pupil of
Knapton
. He began as a specialist in
pastel
and never altogether gave up the medium, but in the 1760s he turned mainly to oils and became a great fashionable success, the only serious rival to
Gainsborough
and
Reynolds
. Like them, he was a founder member of the
Royal Academy
. His work is charming and vivacious and totally unintellectual; in the words of Sir Ellis
Waterhouse
, ‘He went all out for health and youth and fine clothes, a strong likeness and no nonsense.’ His studio in Cavendish Square in London (and something of his position in the market) was later taken over by
Romney
.

 
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