Essentially an imitator, and an eclectic whose style was a mixture of the Corregesque and Roman schools, Niccolò had a great reputation, and is mentioned by Agostino Caracci in a famous sonnet, as combining in his style all the qualities most desirable for a painter to possess. Of his Italian frescos, several from the Palazzo Scandiano transferred to canvas are in the gallery at Modena, the best of which represent singers and players on musical instruments. Twelve subjects are taken from the Æneid. In the University, also, there is a frieze of men and maidens. Of the joint works of Primaticcio and Niccolò at Fontainebleau little is distinguishable, and of that of Niccolò, nothing, as the Great Gallery where he painted the Gods of Olympus and the story of Ulysses was destroyed in 1738. Whether the life-size Diana in the château is by the master or the pupil is uncertain. Among Niccolò's few authentic paintings are the Rape of Proserpine, Stafford House, London; and a Holy Family in his Corregesque manner, at Kedleston Hall, near Derby, the seat of Lord Scarsdale.—Vasari, ed. Le Mon., xi. 241; xiii. 5; Meyer, Künst. Lex., i. 4; Burckhardt, 682; Mündler, Essai (Paris, 1850).
ABBATI, GIUSEPPE, born in Naples in 1836, died in Florence, Feb. 20, 1868. Genre and landscape painter; son and pupil of Vincenzo A., of Naples; studied also at Venice Academy until 1852. In 1860 and 1866 he joined the volunteers under Garibaldi, and then retired to the Tuscan coast to paint nature and peasant life, in the treatment of which he resembles Jules Breton. Scarcely had he reached a prominent place among modern Italian painters, when he died of a bite from his dog.—Meyer, Künst. Lex., i. 10.
ABBEY, EDWIN AUSTIN, born in Philadelphia, United States, in 1852. Genre painter, pupil of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Best known as an illustrator of periodicals, but has done good work in water colours. Studio in New York until 1883, when he removed to London. Member of New York Water Colour Society and of London Institute of Water Colours. Works: Stage Office (1876), R. G. Dun, New York; Evil Eye (1877), Lady in a Garden (1878), J. W. Harper, ib.; Rose in October (1879), J. P. Townsend, ib.; the Widower (1883); Reading the Bible (1884), Andrew Carnegie, ib.
ABBOTT, FRANCIS LEMUEL, born in Leicestershire, England, in 1760, died in London in 1803. Pupil of Frank Hayman; went to London in 1780, and occasionally exhibited portraits at the Academy from 1788 to 1800. Among his best works are Viscount Bridport, Earl Macartney, Sir George Staunton, Nelson, Nollekens, and Vancouver in the National Portrait Gallery; Admiral Sir Peter Parker, Nelson, Greenwich Hospital.—Redgrave; Catalogue National Portrait Gallery, 408.
ABD-EL-KADER, CAPTURE OF THE SMALA OF, Horace Vernet, Versailles Museum; canvas, H. 16 ft. × 71 ft. The smala, consisting of his camp, court, harem, and treasury, was taken by surprise, May 16, 1843, by Duc d'Aumale at the head of two cavalry regiments. Booty of immense value and 5,000 prisoners were captured. Abd-el-Kader was absent at the time.
ABEL, DEATH OF (Genesis iv. 8), Andrea Schiavone, Palazzo Pitti, Florence; canvas, H. 7 ft. × 6 ft. 2 in. Cain in the act of striking Abel, who, prostrate, tries to ward off the blow; background, a wooded landscape, with a dead goat. Baldinucci calls it Samson killing a Philistine.—Catalogue Palazzo Pitti.
By Tintoretto, Venice Academy; canvas. Ruskin says this picture and its companion piece, Adam and Eve, are the "best possible examples of what, in absolute power of painting, is supremest work, so far as I know, in all the world." One of four subjects from Genesis, painted for the former Scuola della Trinità.—Lavice, 462.
2
