Niccolò Corso, also known as Niccolò di Lombarduccio,(1446- circa 1512) was an Italian painter of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

period, active mainly in

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

. The majority of his known pictures are located in the cloister and refectory of the monastery of the Olivetan Fathers at

Quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

, near

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Life

He was the son of a certain Lombarduccio, a native of Corsica and was probably born in

around 1446. His family name ''Corso'' is a reference to his Corsican roots. The first documentary evidence on the artists dates to 15 September 1469 when a 'Nicola de Corsus Plebs Vici Corsice q. Lombarducii' enters in Genoa into a partnership with the painter and jewel-case maker Gaspare dell’Acqua from Pavia.Massimiliano Caldera, ''Niccolò Corso''
at Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 78 (2013) The two artists collaborated on the decoration of

cassone A cassone (plural ''cassoni'') or marriage chest is a rich and showy Italian type of chest, which may be inlaid or carved, prepared with gesso ground then painted and gilded. ''Pastiglia'' was decoration in low relief carved or moulded in ...

panelsVittorio Natale. "Corso, Nicolò." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 5 July 2016 Only a few weeks later the two artists decided to dissolve the partnership. Nothing is known about his training or whether he worked initially in Corsica. It appears he was exposed to the Flemish painting of

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( ; ; – 9 July 1441) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Nort ...

and

Rogier van der Weyden Rogier van der Weyden (; 1399 or 140018 June 1464), initially known as Roger de le Pasture (), was an Early Netherlandish painting, early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commis ...

as well as Provençal painting. The artist's style emerges confidently in the ''Madonna with Child and Angels'' (

Bonnefantenmuseum The Bonnefanten Museum is a museum of historic, modern and contemporary art in Maastricht, Netherlands. History The museum was founded in 1884 as the historical and archaeological museum for the Dutch province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. ...

, Maastricht), which dates to the period 1465-70 and was made for the parish of

La Turbie La Turbie (; ; ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. History La Turbie was famous in Roman times for the large monument, the Trophy of Augustus, that Augustus made to celebrate his victory over the Ligur ...

(Nice). This work quotes verbatim the ''Madonna'' of the anonymous Master of the Madonna Cagnola, to whose work Corso's early production is closely related. His early panels also show his knowledge of the painting of

Vincenzo Foppa Vincenzo Foppa ( – ) was an Italian painter from the Renaissance period. While few of his works survive, he was an esteemed and influential painter during his time and is considered the preeminent leader of the Early Lombard School. He spent hi ...

at the beginning of the 1460s. He worked for many years at the Olivetan monastery of St Jerome located in Quarto, near Genoa. He worked there for the first time in 1489 and then continuously from 1491 to 1494. The works he made there include frescoes on the life of St. Benedict. In 1491 he worked with Francesco de' Ferrari of Pavia on an ''Annunciazion with Saints'' for the church of Santa Maria della Passione in Genoa. Corso also collaborated with Davide da Staglieno on frescoes for the Chapel of Pope

Sixtus IV Pope Sixtus IV (or Xystus IV, ; born Francesco della Rovere; (21 July 1414 – 12 August 1484) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 August 1471 until his death in 1484. His accomplishments as pope included ...

in the Franciscan convent of

Savona Savona (; ) is a seaport and (municipality) in the west part of the northern Italian region of Liguria, and the capital of the Province of Savona. Facing the Ligurian Sea, Savona is the main center of the Riviera di Ponente (the western se ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Corso, Niccolo 1446 births 1512 deaths 15th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 16th-century Italian painters Painters from Genoa Italian Renaissance painters