For a revision of the chronology of Nicolò dell’Abate’s French drawings: «Cupid on the crescent» of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana and «Bacchus» of the Louvre

The article examines two drawings by Nicolò dell’Abate (Modena, 1509? – Paris, 1571), representing Cupid on the crescent and Bacchus, preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan and in the Louvre Museum, executed during the artist’s period of activity in France (1552-1571). Their iconographic and stylistic analysis, coupled with the discovery of new archival documents, led to a review of the chronology of the master's French drawings. The two sheets were dated on stylistic basis to the last decade of Nicolò’s career (1560-1570): however, the presence of the croissant de lune, emblem of Henry II, in the Ambrosiana’s drawing, signals the need to backdate it before 10th July 1559, at the time of the death of the sovereign, while the analysis of the style expressed in the two drawings leads to a reassessment of the development of the artist’s modus operandi at the French court, supported by the recent discovery of two notarial documents in the State Archives of Bologna.