April by Francesco del Cossa

Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces, using your phone, tablet or computer.

Each thirty minute episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork - and you're invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.

This episode takes a closer look at a fresco by Francesco del Cossa that adorns the wall in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara. The fresco takes us from the realm of the gods - a garden of love presided over by Venus - to the city far below, where the region's ruler, Borso d'Este, shows off both his magnanimity and his elegant pins. We meet the court jester, go to the races, and discover why Renaissance princes liked to shimmer.

To see the high-resolution image, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures and follow the link to explore April.

Interviewees: Carol Plazzotta, Ita Mac Carthy, Timothy McCall, Kristen Lippincott and Giorgia Mancini.

Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald

Art history consultant: Leah Kharibian
Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Engineer: Mike Woolley

A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4.

Picture credit: (c) Musei di Arte Antica di Ferrara

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