NICCOLO

CASSANA (1659—1914)  , often called NICOLETTO, Italian painter, was born at Venice, and became a disciple of his father, Giovanni Francesco Cassana, a Genoese, who had been taught the art of painting by Bernardino Strozzi (" it Prete Genovese ") . Having painted portraits of the Florentine court, and also of some of the English nobility, Nicoletto was invited to England, and introduced to Queen Anne, who sat to him for her likeness, and conferred on him many marks of favour . He died in London in 1714, having given way to drinking in his later years . Cassano. was a man of the most vehement temper, and would wallow on the ground if provoked with his work . One of his principal paintings is the " Conspiracy of Catiline," now in Florence .