(d Bologna, 2 Mar. 1494).
Italian sculptor. He was probably of south Italian origin, but his known career was spent in Bologna, where he is first documented in 1462. His name comes from his work on the Arca di S. Domenico (Shrine of St Dominic) in S. Domenico Maggiore, Bologna, for which he carved a marble canopy and small free-standing figures (1469 onwards). The work was unfinished at his death and Michelangelo carved three missing figures. Niccolò's greatest work is a highly emotional group of the Lamentation over the Body of Christ in S. Maria della Vita, Bologna, executed in terracotta and originally painted. It is of uncertain date: some scholars place it in the early 1460s, others near the end of Niccolò's life. According to tradition the figure of Nicodemus is a self-portrait.