NICOLA da GUARDIAGRELE. — Abruzzese goldsmith and sculptor, b. in the last decade of the fourteenth century, d. before 1462.
His earliest works, all signed and dated (ostensorium of Francavilla a mare, 1413; ostensorium of Atessa, 1418; processional cross of Lanciano, 1422), show him working within the international Gothic currents prevailing in Abruzzese goldsmithing at the beginning of the fifteenth century, after the medieval achievements of the schools of Sulmona and Teramo. He drew the first impulses of his training from the same environment of Guardiagrele, but from 1431 onward he assimilated numerous elements of Florentine inspiration, particularly from Ghiberti. The Crosses of Guardiagrele (1431), Aquila (1434), and Monticchio (1436) present, in various forms, the elaboration of these new elements. The same is true of the antependium of the cathedral of Teramo (1433–38), a masterpiece of Abruzzese goldsmithing, and of the Lateran Cross (1451), down to the last documented work of N., the bust of S. Giustino in the cathedral of Chieti (1455), though it was entirely remade in 1721. A series of stone sculptures (the lunette with the Coronation of the Virgin on the portal of S. Maria Maggiore in Guardiagrele, and the reliefs with the Angel and the Annunciation in the Museo del Bargello and on the façade of the cathedral of Teramo) attest to his distinction as a sculptor as well as a goldsmith. His activity as a painter, however, remains debated.