(b Ferrara, c. 1460; d Mantua, 5 March 1535).
He was the son of a painter, Giovanni Battista (?)Costa, and he received his early training in the studio of Ercole de’ Roberti in Ferrara. Probably in the early 1480s he moved to Bologna, where he became the favoured artist of Giovanni II Bentivoglio. Major commissions for Bolognese churches suggest that at one time he was the most sought-after artist in Bologna.
Maria Cristina Chiusa