Abbate, Niccolò dell' (1509–1571)

Italian Mannerist painter. He worked in France from the early 1550s, his slender, sensual nudes being a major influence on the development of the Fontainebleau School.

He was active in his home town of Modena, then in Bologna, his early works, mainly frescoes and portraits, reflecting the influence of the Mannerist Jacopo da Pontormo. Invited to France by Francis I, he worked with Primaticcio at Fontainebleau, their work there having a profound influence on French art. Abbate's mythological scenes prepared the way for the classical landscapes of Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain.