Bentivoglio Altarpiece Bentivoglio Altarpiece The Bentivoglio Altarpiece is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Lorenzo Costa the Elder, dating to August 1488. It is displayed in the Bentivoglio Chapel of the church of San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna, Italy. It was commissioned by Giovanni II Bentivoglio, lord of Bologna, as a thanksgiving for the family’s escape from an attempted massacre by the Malvezzi family . The painting is a large canvas, executed by Costa together with other two works on the chapel's walls, the "Triumph of Fame" and the "Triumph of Death". It features, above a sumptuous Renaissance architecture, a marble altar
Early Netherlandish painting time. That hinged works could be opened and closed served a practical purpose; on religious holidays the more prosaic and everyday outer panels were replaced by the lush interior panels. The "Ghent Altarpiece", completed in 1432, had different configurations for weekdays, Sundays and church holidays. The first generation of Netherlandish masters borrowed many customs from 13th- and 14th-century Italian altarpieces. The conventions for Italian triptychs before 1400 were quite rigid. In central panels the mid-ground was populated by members of the Holy Family; early works, especially from the Sienese or Florentine traditions, were overwhelmingly characterised by images of the enthroned