Antonello da Messina, properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio, but also called Antonello degli Antoni and Anglicized as Anthony of Messina ( 1430February 1479), was an Italian painter from

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

, active during the Early

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

. His work shows strong influences from

Early Netherlandish painting Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

, although there is no documentary evidence that he ever travelled beyond Italy. Giorgio Vasari credited him with the introduction of

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

into Italy, although this is now disputed. Unusually for a southern Italian artist of the Renaissance, his work proved influential on painters in northern Italy, especially in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Biography

Early life and training

Antonello da Messina - St Jerome in his study - National Gallery London

Antonello was born at

around 1429–1431, to Garita (Margherita) and Giovanni de Antonio Mazonus, a sculptor who trained him early on. He and his family resided in the Sicofanti district of the city. Antonello is thought to have apprenticed in Rome before going to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, where Netherlandish painting was then fashionable. According to a letter written in 1524 by the Neapolitan humanist Pietro Summonte, in about 1450 Antonello was a pupil of the painter Niccolò Colantonio in Naples. This account of his training is accepted by most art historians.

Early career

Antonello returned to Messina from Naples during the 1450s. In around 1455, he painted the so-called '' Sibiu Crucifixion'', inspired by

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

treatments of the subject, which is now in the Muzeul de Artǎ in Bucharest. A ''Crucifixion'' in the Royal Museum of Antwerp dates from the same period. These early works shows a marked Flemish influence, which is now understood to be inspired by his master Colantonio and from paintings by Rogier van der Weyden and

Jan van Eyck Jan van Eyck ( , ; – July 9, 1441) was a painter active in Bruges who was one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. Ac ...

that belonged to Colantonio's patron,

Alfonso V of Aragon Alfonso the Magnanimous (139627 June 1458) was King of Aragon and King of Sicily (as Alfonso V) and the ruler of the Crown of Aragon from 1416 and King of Naples (as Alfonso I) from 1442 until his death. He was involved with struggles to the t ...

In his biography of the artist, Giorgio Vasari remarked that Antonello saw an

by Van Eyck (the ''Lomellini Tryptych'') belonging to King Alfonso V of Aragon at Naples and consequently introduced oil painting to Italy. Recent evidence indicates that an "Antonello di Sicilia" (di Sicilia meaning 'from Sicily') was in contact with Van Eyck's most accomplished follower, Petrus Christus, in Milan in early 1456. It appears likely that this was in fact Antonello da Messina as this would explain why he was one of the first Italians to master Eyckian oil painting, and why Christus was the first Netherlandish painter to learn Italian linear perspective. Antonello's paintings after that date show an observation of almost microscopic detail and of minute gradations of light on reflecting or light absorbent objects that is very close to the style of the Netherlandish masters, suggesting that Antonello was personally instructed by Christus. Also, the calmer expressions on human faces and calmness in the overall composition of Antonello's works appear to be owing to a Netherlandish influence. He is believed to have shared Van Eyck's techniques with

Gentile Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym for ...

and

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father ...

. Between the years of 1456 and 1457, Antonello proved himself to be a master painter in Messina. He also shared his home with Paolo di Ciacio, a student from Calabria. The artist's earliest documented commission, in 1457, was for a banner for the Confraternità di San Michele dei Gerbini in

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria ( scn, label= Southern Calabrian, Riggiu; el, label= Calabrian Greek, Ρήγι, Rìji), usually referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the largest city in Calabria. It has an estimated popul ...

, where he set up a workshop for the production of such banners and devotional images. At this date, he was already married, and his son Jacobello had been born. In 1460, his father is mentioned leasing a

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

to bring back Antonello and his family from Amantea in

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. In that year, Antonello painted the so-called '' Salting Madonna'', in which standard iconography and Flemish style are combined with a greater attention in the volumetric proportions of the figures, probably indicating a knowledge of works by

Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...

. Also from around 1460 are two small panels depicting ''Abraham Served by the Angels'' and ''St. Jerome Penitent'' now in the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in

. In 1461 Antonello's younger brother Giordano entered his workshop, signing a three-year contract. In that year Antonello painted a ''Madonna with Child'' for the Messinese nobleman Giovanni Mirulla, now lost. Historians believe that Antonello painted his first portraits in the late 1460s. They follow a Netherlandish model, the subject being shown bust-length, against a dark background, full face or in three-quarter view, while most previous Italian painters had adopted the medal-style profile pose for individual portraits.

John Pope-Hennessy Sir John Wyndham Pope-Hennessy (13 December 1913 – 31 October 1994), was a British art historian. Pope-Hennessy was Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1967 and 1973, and Director of the British Museum between 1974 and 1976. ...

described him as "the first Italian painter for whom the individual portrait was an art form in its own right". Although Antonello is mentioned in many documents between 1460 and 1465, establishing his presence in Messina in those years, a gap in the sources between 1465 and 1471 suggests that he may have spent these years on the mainland. In 1474, he painted the ''Annunciation'', now in

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

, and the '' St. Jerome in His Study'' also dates from around this time.

Venice

Antonello went to

in 1475 and remained there until the fall of 1476. His works of this period begin to show a greater attention to the human figure, regarding both anatomy and expressivity, indicating the influence of Piero della Francesca and Giovanni Bellini. His most famous pictures from this period include the ''Condottiero'' (Louvre), the ''

San Cassiano Altarpiece The ''San Cassiano Altarpiece'' is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Antonello da Messina, dating to 1475–1476. Commissioned for the church of San Cassiano in Venice, it was disassembled in the early 17th-century and the reunited cen ...

'' and the ''

St. Sebastian Saint Sebastian (in Latin: ''Sebastianus''; Narbonne, Narbo, Gallia Narbonensis, Roman Empire c. AD 255 – Rome, Roman Italy, Italia, Roman Empire c. AD 288) was an early Christianity, Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional beli ...

''. The ''San Cassiano Altarpiece'' was especially influential on Venetian painters, as it was one of the first of the large compositions in the '' sacra conversazione'' format which was perfected by Giovanni Bellini (Antonello's surviving work in Vienna is only a fragment of a much larger original). It is also likely that Antonello passed on both the techniques of using oil paints and the principles of calmness on subjects' faces and in the composition of paintings to Giovanni Bellini and other Venetian painters during that visit.Hartt pg. 563; Raunch pg. 361 While in Venice he was offered, but did not accept, the opportunity to become the court portrait painter to the

Duke of Milan The following is a list of rulers of Milan from the 13th century to 1814, after which it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia by the Congress of Vienna. Before elevation to duchy Until 1259, Milan was a free commune that elect ...

Return to Messina and death

Antonello had returned to Sicily by September 1476. Works from near the end of his life include the famous '' Virgin Annunciate'', now in the Palazzo Abatellis in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, and the

San Gregorio Polyptych ''San Gregorio Polyptych'' is a polyptych painting by the Italian Renaissance master Antonello da Messina, completed in 1473 and housed in the Regional Museum of Messina, southern Italy. History The polyptych is signed in the cartouche visible ...

. He died at Messina in 1479. His testament dates from February of that year, and he is documented as no longer alive two months later. Some of his last works remained unfinished, but were completed by his son Jacobello. Antonello da Messina 031

Style and legacy

Antonello's style is remarkable for its union of Italian simplicity with Flemish concern for detail. He exercised an enormous influence on Italian painting, not only by the introduction of the Flemish invention, but also by the transmission of Flemish tendencies. However, no school of painting formed after his death, with the exception of the Sicilian

Marco Costanzo Marco may refer to: People * Marco (given name), people with the given name Marco * Marco (actor) (born 1977), South Korean model and actor * Georg Marco (1863–1923), Romanian chess player of German origin * Tomás Marco (born 1942), Spanish co ...

Selected works

*'' Sibiu Crucifixion'' (1455) - Muzeul de Artà,

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

*'' Abraham Served by the Angels'' - Museo della Magna Grecia,

*'' Portrait of a Man'' (1460s) - Oil on wood, Civic Museums,

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

*'' Ecce Homo'' (c. 1470) - Tempera and oil on panel, 42.5 x 30.5 cm,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

*'' Ecce Homo'' (1470) - Tempera and oil on panel, 40 x 33 cm, Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola,

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

*'' St. Jerome Penitent'' - Various techniques on wood, 40.2 x 30.2 cm, Museo della Magna Grecia,

*''

'' (1473) - Tempera on panel, 194 x 202 cm, Regional Museum,

*'' Ecce Homo'' (c. 1473) - Tempera on panel, 19.5 x 14.3 cm, Private collection,

*'' Portrait of a Man'' (1474) - Oil on wood, Staatliche Museen, Berlin *'' Madonna with Child (Salting Madonna)'' - Oil on wood, 43.2 x 34.3 cm, National Gallery, London *'' Portrait of a Man'' (1474) - Oil on wood, 32 x 26 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin *''

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...

'' (1474) - Oil on panel, 180 x 180 cm, Bellomo Palace Regional Gallery,

*'' St. Jerome in His Study'' (c. 1474) - Oil on wood, 46 x 36,5 cm,

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

*'' Ecce Homo'' (1475) - Oil on panel, 48.5 x 38 cm,

Collegio Alberoni The Collegio Alberoni is a Roman Catholic seminary located on Via Emilia Parmense #77 in Piacenza, Italy. The complex also includes a prominent art gallery, Galleria Alberoni. Affiliated with the seminary are an seismic and astronomical observator ...

, Piacenza *'' Portrait of a Man (Il Condottiere)'' (1475) - Oil on wood, 35 x 38 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris *''

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

'' (1455) - Oil on panel 52.5 x 42.5 cm, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten,

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

*''

'' (1475) - Wood, 42 x 25,5 cm, National Gallery, London *'' Portrait of a Man'' (c. 1475) - Oil on wood,

Galleria Borghese The Galleria Borghese () is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate tourist ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

*'' Portrait of a Man'' (c. 1475) - Oil on panel, 36 x 25 cm, National Gallery, London *'' Portrait of a Man'' (1475–1476) - Oil on panel, 28 x 21 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid *''

'' (1475–76) - Oil on panel, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna *''

The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' (1475–78) - Panel, 74 x 51 cm,

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

, Madrid *'' Christ at the Column'' (c. 1475–1479) - Oil on wood, 25,8 x 21 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris *''

Virgin of the Annunciation Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

'' -Oil on panel,

Alte Pinakothek, Munich The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pinako ...

*'' Portrait of a Man'' (1476) - Oil on panel, Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, Turin *''

'' (c. 1476) - Oil on wood, 45 x 34,5 cm, Museo Nazionale, Palermo *''

'' (1477–1479) - Oil on canvas transferred from panel, 171 × 85 cm, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden *'' Portrait of a Young Man'' (c. 1478) - Panel, 20.4 x 14.5 cm,

Staatliche Museeun The Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters, several research institutes, libraries, and supporting facilities. They are overseen ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

*''Portrait of an unknown man'' - Oil on panel, Museo Mandralisca,

Cefalù Cefalù (), classically known as Cephaloedium (), is a city and comune in the Italian Metropolitan City of Palermo, located on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily about east of the provincial capital and west of Messina. The town, with its populati ...

*''Madonna and Child'' - Oil and tempera on panel transferred from panel, National Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

References

Sources

*
(online)
* Christiansen, Keith

In ''Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History''. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (March 2010) * *

External links

* ttp://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art24.htm ''Best of Sicily'' Magazine article on Antonello da Messina and the technique of egg tempera / oil media*
Web Gallery of Art''Petrus Christus: Renaissance master of Bruges''
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Antonello da Messina (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Antonello Da Messina Italian Renaissance painters Quattrocento painters 1430s births 1479 deaths Italian male painters Italian portrait painters Painters from Messina Kingdom of Sicily people 15th-century Italian painters Catholic painters