CORTE (CORTI, CURTE), NICCOLÒ DA

CORTE (CORTI, CURTE), NICCOLÒ da. - Sculptor, born at Cima di Valsolda (Lugano), at an unknown date; died at Granada in 1552. In Genoa in 1530 he executed the portal of the Doria palace, the decorations for the urn containing the relics of St. John the Baptist (Cathedral), and collaborated with Guglielmo and Giacomo della Porta (portal of the Salvago palace, ciborium of the chapel of S. Giovanni, and altar of the Apostles in the Cathedral). In 1537 Admiral de Bazán brought him to Spain: he worked with graceful skill at Valladolid and Granada (statue of Fama for a portal of a palace of Carlo V in the Alhambra, for which he subsequently also executed a Vittoria and a bas-relief of Abbondanza). After having for some time (1539–41) attempted painting—the “retablo” of the church of Gava, signed “Nicolasin pintor”—he perhaps executed, with the assistance of the Milanese Niccolò de Longhi, the fountain of the Alhambra, after designs by P. Machuca; it remained unfinished, as did also the southern portal, the undertaking of which he had assumed in 1548.