In 1419 he received the commission for a statue for the façade of S. Maria del Fiore; in 1421 he completed that of Joshua begun for the campanile by D. Ciuffagni, and in 1422 one of Obadiah for the campanile. Meanwhile, in 1421 he had been entrusted, together with Donatello, with a group depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac, likewise intended for the campanile. In 1423 N. was in Venice, and thereafter he is found in Verona where, between 1423 and 1439, he executed the Brenzoni monument in S. Fermo. Between 1432 and 1435 he was also in Tolentino, working on the portal of that church of S. Nicolò.
Of uncertain personality and variously impressionable, N. appears in his early works still inclined toward Gothic styles, soon attenuated through contact with Donatello, but resumed when, in the Veneto, he fell under local influence, to the point of nearly forgetting his early Florentine experiences.