Lot 40: Nicolò dell'Abbate (Italian c. 1512-1571)

Nicolò dell'Abbate (Italian c. 1512-1571)
Portrait of a halberdier, half-length, with a plumed hat
oil on panel
25½ x 20¼ in. (64.8 x 51.4 cm.)

Conte Leonida Mattaroli, Castel Marino.
Dona Maria Costa, Palermo, Sicily and Plainfield, New Jersey.

Nicolò dell'Abbate was one of the primary exponents of Italian Mannerist landscape in France, and was part of the first Fontainebleau school, as developed at the court of Henry II by Rosso Fiorentino and Francesco Primaticcio. Dell'Abbate's earliest teachers included his father Giovanni and the painter Alberto Fontana, and his early works demonstrate an interest in pastoral themes and an awareness of Correggio and Dosso Dossi. By the 1540's, the period to which the present portrait may likely date, dell'Abbate was employed to produce a decorative cycle for a castle belonging to the Boiardo family at Scandiano, near Modena. Dell'Abbate's figural types at this time drew heavily from Parmigianino, to whom the present portrait was at one time attributed. Other potential attributions to artists including Pontormo, del Piombo, and even Giorgione had been considered in the past; its authorship by dell'Abbate was originally suggested by Dr. Alfred Scharf, London.

We are grateful to Dott. Giuseppe Cirillo for confirming the attribution to dell'Abate on the basis of photographs. Dott. Cirillo places it in the artist's first period circa 1535-40, and compares it to a Concert in the Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia.