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Urbino, Nicola da [Sbraghe, Nicola di Gabriele; Sbraga di Gabriele; Pellipario, Nicolò]
( fl 1520–37/8; d Urbino, ?1537/8). Italian maiolica painter. He has long been confused with Nicolò Pellipario from Castel Durante, who was the father of the maiolica painter Guido Durantino (later Fontana) of Urbino. Nicola was documented as being in Urbino in 1520, by which time he was already referred to as maestro. He was head of his own workshop but also collaborated with others. One of his finest pieces is a large signed plate (1528; Florence, Bargello) decorated with the story of St Cecilia. Four other signed pieces are in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (1521), the Louvre, Paris (c. 1525–8), the church of S Stefano, Novellara (c. 1530), and the British Museum, London (c. 1535). Several magnificent armorial services have been attributed to him on the basis of these works. The ‘Correr’ service (c. 1520; Venice, Correr) is noted for its lyrical scenes drawn from mythology and contemporary romances and for its graceful figures and sophisticated colour harmonies. A service of c. 1525 for Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua, was his most prestigious commission, and he also produced another set around the same time for the Calini family of Brescia. Both sets feature imaginative architectural settings. In the 1530s he made services for Isabella’s son, Federico Gonzaga, 1st Duke of Mantua, and his wife, Margherita Paleologo. Nicola was a pre-eminent figure in the production of Italian Renaissance maiolica and was a major influence on other istoriato painters in and around Urbino and Pesaro. Like other artists such as Francesco Xanto Avelli, he drew on prints for inspiration, using woodcuts from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Venice, 1497) and engravings by such artists as Marcantonio Raimondi. Nicola’s compositions, however, are imbued with a freshness and originality that set them apart from those of his contemporaries and followers. He is often regarded as the most gifted and inventive of the 16th-century istoriato artists and was largely responsible for establishing what is thought of as the classic style of Renaissance maiolica.
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