Nicola or Niccolò Contestabili (1759–1824) was an Italian painter, mainly depicting history and landscapes in a Neoclassic style.

Biography

His father Antonio Contestabili was a landscape and

quadratura Illusionistic ceiling painting, which includes the techniques of perspective ''di sotto in sù'' and ''quadratura'', is the tradition in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo art in which ''trompe-l'œil'', perspective tools such as foreshortening, an ...

painter. Born in Pontremoli, Nicola moved to Florence in 1778 to study under Francesco Zuccarelli. Nicola also painted the sipario or theater curtain for the Persio Flacco Theater in

Volterra Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods. History Volter ...

. He returned to live in Pontremoli from 1786 to 1802, when he returned to Florence. In Pontremoli, he painted scenes of ''Niobe'' and ''Aurora'' for the Casa Gramoli. He also painted in Casa Martelli.Archivio Storico per le Provincie Parmensi
Volumes 3-4, Entry by Camillo Cimatti, Presso La Reale Deputazione di Storia Patria, Parma (1807) page 153. He died in Florence.

References

1759 births 1824 deaths 18th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 19th-century Italian painters Painters from Tuscany Italian neoclassical painters 19th-century Italian male artists 18th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-18thC-stub