CORTE, Niccolò da
Italian sculptor and mason, active also in Spain. His father was from Lake Lugano and da Corte probably received his training in the circle of Agostino Busti (c. 1483-1548) in Milan. It was no doubt here that he met Giovanni Giacomo della Porta, who was active in the Milan Cathedral stone masons’ lodge. In 1528-29 da Corte was in Genoa and Savona. His first known work, the inscribed plaque and surrounding sculptural decoration above the portal of the Palazzo Andrea Doria, Genoa, was executed in 1528.
From 1532 da Corte collaborated with della Porta on numerous commissions, such as the marble decoration in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa. In 1534 he contracted a formal partnership with della Porta and his son Guglielmo della Porta, which lasted until 1537. The two most important pieces from this workshop are in Genoa Cathedral: the baldachin in the chapel of San Giovanni Battista which was commissioned by Filippo Doria c. 1530 and erected in 1532, and the funerary monument to Giuliano Cybo, Bishop of Agrigento (1533-37). On the baldachin, the decorative elements and some of the prophet reliefs on the socles can be attributed to da Corte, and on the Cybo monument, the relief with Fortitude and Justice.
In 1536 da Corte was contracted to supply architectural elements for the palace of Alvaro de Bazán, Marqués de Santa Cruz, in Granada. He emigrated to Granada in 1537. In November 1537 he was paid for the figure of Fame on the south portal of the palace of Charles V in the Alhambra. In 1538-39 he was working on the socle reliefs with war trophies, also on the south portal. His presence in Granada can be documented from 1545 until his death. From 1545 da Corte worked on the wall fountain in the Alhambra (el pilar de Carlos V). His last commission was the ‘Mirador’, a Venetian window in the palace of Charles V.
Da Corte’s greatest stylistic achievement is found in ornament and decoration, and even in his figural works the elegance of the drapery is more impressive than the expressive qualities.
