Saint Ursula and Her Maidens

Saint Ursula is shown with some of the eleven thousand virgins with whom she is said to have been martyred by the Huns around 383 CE. A leading late Gothic painter in Venice, Niccolò seems to have had contact with northern, perhaps Bohemian, art, and was also deeply influenced by Michelino da Besozzo and Gentile da Fabriano, both of whom were active in the city. The decorative richness of Niccolò’s paintings derives from Venice’s trade with the Middle East and the importation of Islamic textiles.