Ancora su Lorenzo Costa, Bernardino Orsi e le “Storie degli Argonauti”

A recent article has suggested that Bernardino Orsi da Collecchio was the author of six small-scale panels, surviving elements of a cycle dedicated to the Stories of the Argonauts; these were originally set into a pair of bridal cassoni and are now housed in various public and private collections. It is proposed here that the execution of the cassone decoration was divided between two painters: Orsi can be accepted as one of them, while the other attribution confirms Roberto Longhi’s belief in the authorship of Lorenzo Costa during his youthful phase in Bologna. Defining Orsi’s participation in this cassone commission provides an opportunity to reconsider other works recently ascribed to him by scholars, and to clarify his role in the multi-faceted Bolognese artistic milieu of the end of the fifteenth century.