Tura was court artist at the celebrated Renaissance court of the Este dukes at Ferrara and served successively dukes Borso and Ercole I. He was probably trained in Francesco Squarcione's (Squarcione, Francesco) workshop in Padua and was influenced by Andrea Mantegna and by Piero della Francesca, when the latter artist was working in Ferrara (c. 1449–50).

Tura was a master of allegory and a considerable decorative painter. The important part played by him in the complex and erudite cycle of frescoes in the Schifanoia Palace at Ferrara (1469–71) can still be seen. Other important works include his “Primavera” (c. 1460) in the National Gallery, London; the organ doors showing the “Annunciation” (1469) in Ferrara Cathedral; a “Pietà” (c. 1472) in the Correr Municipal Museum, Venice; and the Roverella altarpiece (c. 1472).

Tura remained within the tradition of Squarcione throughout his life, but within that tradition he developed his own personal idiom. His work is characterized by a mannered, nervous, and wiry line and the use of carefully rendered detail and brilliant colour. His figures are usually draped in metallic, angular folds.