Biography

Italian painter (Niccolò dell'Abbruggia). He was first documented as a painter in 1489: he was an employee of Perugino in Rome in 1489-93. His first recorded work was in Pisa, where he produced the altarpiece of the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints and the associated predella of the Adoration of the Magi and Slaughter of the Innocents (?1493; Pisa, Museo Nazionale S. Matteo). In 1499 he was commissioned to participate in the decoration of the choir of Ferrara Cathedral and subsequently he was one of the painters who received a salary from Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. In Ferrara he also executed an altarpiece of the Virgin and Child Enthroned between SS James and Helen (1512-14; Milan, Brera). On the basis of stylistic comparisons with this, he has been attributed with several works, including the altarpiece of the Holy Family with Four Crowned Saints (1520; Worcester, MA, Art Museum). In Ferrara he collaborated with Lorenzo Costa and Niccolò Rossetti.

In 1526 he moved to Budrio, near Bologna, where he produced the Virgin and Child in the Clouds with Saints (1526; Bologna, S Donnino), showing links with Raphael's classicism, the Deposition (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale), the Virgin and Child in Clouds with SS John, Eleutropius and Petronius (1534; private collection). In 1537 Niccolò Pisano returned to Pisa, where he painted the panel depicting the Punishment of the Sons of Aaron (in situ) for the cathedral.