CORTE (CORTI, CURTE), NICCOLÒ DA

CORTE (CORTI, CURTE), NICCOLÒ da. — Sculptor born in Cima di Valsolda (Lugano), date unknown, died in Granada in 1552. In Genoa in 1550 he executed the portal of the Doria palace, the decorations for the urn of the relics of St. John the Baptist (Cathedral), and collaborated with Guglielmo and Giacomo della Porta (portal of Palazzo Salvago, ciborium of the chapel of St. John, and altar of the Apostles in the Cathedral). In 1537 the admiral de Bazán took him to Spain: he worked with graceful skill in Valladolid and Granada (statue of *Fame* for a portal of a palace of Charles V in the Alhambra, for which he later also executed a *Victory* and a bas-relief of *Abundance*). After having for some time (1539–41) attempted the altarpiece platform of the church of Gava (signed by Nicolaus pintor), he may have executed, with the help of the Milanese Niccolò de Longhi, the fountain of the Alhambra, on designs by P. Machuca, which remained unfinished, as did the southern portal whose commission he had undertaken in 1548.