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Nicolau, Pere [Pedro]
( fl 1390; d Valencia, 1408). Spanish painter. Originally from Catalonia, he was described as a ‘citizen of Valencia’ in 1390, when he was paid for work in the cathedral there. This was the first of many commissions in Valencia Cathedral, some of which were undertaken jointly with Marçal de Sas. Nicolau also received royal commissions for Martin I of Aragon and worked for churches in the province of Teruel, which attests to his renown. He founded an important school and evidently trained Gonçal Peris and the Master of Burgo de Osma. The early Virgin of Humility attributed to him (Madrid, Prado) preserves some archaic elements, but the altarpiece of the Virgin (Bilbao, Mus. B.A.) shows the delicate palette and refined yet exuberant draperies of the so-called International Gothic. In three slightly later altarpieces, also dedicated to the Virgin, expressive poses are adopted, like those seen in contemporary Parisian manuscript illumination. That from the church at Sarrión (Teruel) is Nicolau’s only surviving documented work (1404). The central panel (destr.) shows the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels, while the wings (Valencia, Mus. B.A.) represent Scenes from the Life of the Virgin. The altarpieces at Albentosa, near Sarrión (destr. during the Civil War, 1936–9), and Santa Cruz, Moya (Cuenca), of which only fragments survive, are closely related to this work.
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