A notable feature of the scene in Padua was the thriving workshop of Francesco Squarcione, an important seedbed of talent in northern Italy, one from which emerged many masters, such as Carlo Crivelli, Michael Pacher and above all Andrea Mantegna, all of them contributors to diffusion of the Renaissance style.

It might have been from such an experience in Padua that Tura drew his taste for clear and sharp signs and for decorative exuberance, with citations of the antique, which he then took to extreme levels.

Moreover, Squarcione served to introduce and disseminate some of the Tuscan innovations brought to Padua by Donatello, such as the use of linear perspective, the strong, squared lines of the forms and the skilful rendering of expression given to human figures.

From these, Tura acquired a taste for minute observation of detail and for the use of oil paint to render the differing textures of materials depicted, from the glitter of gems to the soft reflections of velvet.

In the years following he worked on frescoes, such as in the chapel of Francesco Sacrati in San Domenico (1467) and the Tales of the Virgin in the so-called "Delight" of Belriguardo (in 1469-1472) for Borso d'Este, cycles now both lost but known from the sources.

He collaborated in the painting of a series of "muses" for the Belfiore "studiolo", of Leonello d'Este in Ferrara, including the allegorical figure of Calliope, already mentioned, now at London's National Gallery.

The central part is in the National Gallery in London, and depicts the Madonna and Child seated on an elaborate throne and surrounded by musician angels.

Despite his attachment to the Este family, to whom he gave virtually the whole of his life's work, and despite having been the leader of a group of Emilian artists, Cosmè Tura died poor and weary.

Tura's painting is endowed with great originality in the Italian panorama of the time, featuring lavishly decorated compositions and an almost sculptural plasticity of the figures, in an apparent realism that belongs more to fantasy rather than reality.

The experiences derived from the courtly art of international Gothic, aimed at celebration, are blended and transformed through the influence of the Paduan Renaissance, Piero della Francesca and Flemish painting.