FERRARA 



Cattle find a place in the picture ; one cow is licking 

 and fondling her sucking calf. There is also a bird of 

 the bee-eater family. The lion is standing on a single- 

 span bridge over a stream. It hangs its head over the 

 water, its mouth open, in a most dejected attitude. A 

 cheerful lion is hard to find in these religious pictures. 



At Ferrara (Palazzo Schifanoia) are courtly frescoes, 

 in one of which his patron Borso, Duke of Ferrara, goes 

 out hunting with hounds and horsemen, attended by 

 falconers and with a hooded falcon on his wrist.^ A 

 monkey and a hare are also represented. 



Borso was not content with ordinary forms of sport, 

 but liked to see wild boars, bulls, bears, and lions fight- 

 ing indiscriminately. In another fresco swans attend 

 Mars and Venus, and rabbits feed in the grass. 



Francesco del Cossa was also employed at the Schifa- Cossa, 

 noia Palace, and in a fresco of Duke Borso and his 

 jester a small hawk attacks a large heron. The heron 

 bends back its head to strike up at the hawk, but has 

 apparently lost its balance. Its head is below its legs, 

 and the toes are turned in like those of a dead bird. 



Francia (Francesca Raibolini), though a Bolognese, Francia, 

 is placed with the Ferrara school on account of the 



^ The walls of the Palazzo Davanzati at Florence or of the Palazzo 

 del Te at Mantua show how a great lord was happy to be daily surrounded 

 by pictures of birds, dogs, and horses. 



57 



i435(?)-i477 



