thumb|280px|Rape of Proserpine, [[Louvre]]
thumb|280px|Chimney breast at the [[Château d'Écouen]]
thumb|Portrait of a young man
Niccolò dell'Abbate, sometimes Nicolò and Abate (1509 or 15121571) was a Mannerist Italian painter in fresco and oils. He was of the Emilian school, and was part of the team of artists called the School of Fontainebleau that introduced the Italian Renaissance to France. He may be found indexed under either "Niccolò" or "Abbate", though the former is more correct.
Biography
Niccolò dell'Abbate was born in Modena, the son of a violinist.
He trained together with Alberto Fontana in the studio of Antonio Begarelli, and notably a courtly ceiling Concert composed of a ring of young musicians seen in perspective, Sotto in Su (early 1540s), and the Hercules Room in the Rocca Meli Lupi at Soragna (c. 1540–43), and possibly the loggia frescoes removed from Palazzo Casotti at Reggio Emilia.
His style was modified by exposure to Correggio and Parmigianino, when he moved to Bologna in 1547. In Bologna, most of his painting depicted elaborate landscapes and aristocratic genre scenes of hunting and courtly loves, often paralleled in mythologic narratives. It was during this time that he decorated the Palazzo Poggi, and executed a cycle of frescoes illustrating Orlando Furioso in the ducal palace at Sassuolo, near Modena. Bologna is also the location of his illustrations for Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and where he was celebrated in a sonnet which compares him to Raphael and Titian among others.
Works
Niccolò is best known for his mythological landscape subjects, which introduced the Flemish world landscape into French art, such as the Orpheus and Landscape with the Death of Eurydice in the National Gallery, London and the Rape of Proserpine in the Louvre, and for his profuse and elegant drawings. Not many of his frescoes have survived; however, the Louvre does have a collection of his drawings. Many of his canvasses were burnt in 1643, by the Austrian regent, Anne.