Home	Antonello da Messina: The Life of Antonello da Messina, Painter [c. 1430-1479]
	Antonello da Messina (ca. 1430-1479) really belongs to the history of painting in southern Italy, but is one of the most significant figures of the Venetian Quattrocento in his connection with the Flemish tradition of the Van Eycks and his supposed introduction of their technique of oil painting, so important to the later development of Renaissance painting in Venice. Antonello di Giovanni degli Antonj was born in Messina about 1430, the son of a sculptor, Giovanni di Michele degli Antonj. Concerning his artistic origins little is known, but he seems certainly to have come under the influence of the Northern painters of the Van Eyck tradition somehow. Whether it was through the local school of Naples, or whether he had been to Spain, where a Flemish tradition had also developed, or even had a possible direct connection with the Flemings in Bruges, is not to be ascertained in any of the documents. In any case there are records in 1457 of his being in Messina, where he hired an assistant for his shop, and in Calabria, where he was commissioned to paint a banner for Reggio. In 1460 he was again in Calabria; from 1461-65 he is recorded in Messina. From 1465-73 there is no record of him whatever, with the exception of a dated Ecce Homo picture of 1470, which was seen in Palermo in the seventeenth century, was later in the Zir Collection of Naples, and is now assumed to be identifiable with the one now in the Metropolitan Museum (Friedsam. Collection) of New York. From its history it is assumed that it was painted in southern Italy. In 147576 he is recorded in Venice, when he painted an altar (part of which, a Madonna, is identified with the one in Vienna) for San Casciano. In 1476, too, he is recorded at the court in Milan and toward the end of that year was back in Messina where he died in 1479. A son of his, Jacobello, is also recorded as a painter in Messina. Antonello's importance to his contemporaries of the fifteenth and the art historians of the sixteenth centuries is due to his sharp observation of nature, whether the object be landscape, architecture (particularly interiors), or decorative details; his interest in light as a means of giving a more palpable life to that nature; and his use of the oil technique as a more adequate medium for its representation. While Antonello's origins are of interest, the more significant point is that in spirit as well as in style the art is related to the Van Eyck tradition and that the new interest in light and color (and with it the oil medium) was a vital problem to both older and younger artists in Italy during this decade (i.e., the '60s and '70s) as has been seen in the works of Piero della Francesca, Baldovinetti, Verrocchio, and continued by Leonardo (cf. Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ) The earliest authentic work by Antonello is the Christ as Salvator Mundi of 1465 in the National Gallery of London, which is signed Millesimo quatucentissimo sexagesimo quinto XIII Indi Antonellus Messaneus pinxit, painted in oil, and clearly shows many Flemish characteristics both in style and technique (cf. the God-Father in the Ghent Altar). The relatively small format, the luminosity of color and jew-like detail, and the interest in light as a means of modeling the forms more plastically in space are characteristics which are to be found in the other best-known works of this early, preVenetian period: the signed and dated ( 1473) Madonna del Rosario with Saints Gregory and Benedict in the Gallery of Messina, originally in San Gregorio there; the Christ Crowned with Thorns ( 1473) in the Piacenza Museum; the Annunciation of ca. 1474 in the Syracuse Museum; and the Crucifixion of 1475 in the Museum of Antwerp, with its clear coloration and miniaturist's detailed execution (cf. the Van Eyck Crucifixion). The comparison of this Antwerp Crucifixion with a second rendition of the same subject, painted two years later ( 1477), in the National Gallery of London reveals a certain softness and lyric character which appear to be an influence of the Venetians. Some time after his stay in Venice he also executed the St. Sebastian in the Dresden gallery, which, though not signed, is certainly painted by Antonello and, in its sharply foreshortened architecture and rounded forms, reflects the influence of Mantegna (cf. also Piero della Francesca, with his monumental form and especially the soft use of light and color). The motif of the reclining, foreshortened warrior to the left is probably taken from Mantegna's Eremitani frescos (St. Christopher). Antonello's influence on the Venetians is not so clearly evident. The fact that Bartolommeo Vivarini's St. Augustine in Venice was painted in 1473 and in the oil medium discounts the assumption that Antonello introduced that medium to the Venetians, since his dated works of the same year indicate that he was probably in southern Italy, and there is no evidence to prove that he was in Venice before 1475. However, Antonello's use of light and shade, not only as a means of modeling forms and defining them in an illusionary space, but also as an emotional expression in itself, seems to have had considerable influence on the later Venetians (cf. Giovanni Bellini, Alvise Vivarini) which separates them distinctly from the Murano tradition of the elder Vivarini. The one theme which becomes particularly popular is the architectural interior, which the Van Eycks had used so often, and which Antonello realizes best in his St. Jerome in his Study ( London, National Gallery) which, though not signed, is one of his important later works. Antonello's portraits are significant not only for their relationship with the Flemish realism of portraiture, but also in their position with regard to the development of the Renaissance portrait in Italy. The emphasis on a more plastic and personal, yet dignified, characterization of the sitter, with head in three-quarter view and eyes fastened on the beholder, is in keeping with the general realistic tendencies of this period going into the last quarter of the century. The earliest is the portrait of an unknown man, painted ca. 1470, now in the Borghese Gallery of Rome. The development can be followed from this to the so-called Hamilton Portrait of 1474 in Berlin, that of a condottiere in the Louvre ( 1475), and particularly that of a Milanese citizen painted in Milan 1476 (cf. Jan Van Eyck's portrait in London; also Piero della Francesca's portrait of Federigo da Montefeltro). Oil colours have been used for panel paintings -- for which tempera colours had up till then been employed -- from the 15th century onwards. Oil paint for practical use only had long been known to the medieval craftsman, and Jan van Eyck and his fellow artists in the Netherlands developed this medium as an addition to tempera, which they continued to use as a base. This composite method soon spread -- especially through Antonello da Messina -- throughout Italy, and from the 16th century onwards it gradually superseded all other techniques. Its great advantages are faster application (alla prima technique) and a wide range of delicately nuanced colours. The art of the Netherlands also reached Italy in another way. Sicily and southern Italy having been under the rule of the House of Aragon since 1442, Spanish painting, like that of the rest of Europe, was greatly influenced by the art of the Netherlands. Rogier van der Weyden was entrusted with many important commissions by the Spanish Court. The Sicilian master Antonello da Messina now also learned how to apply the Northern technique of oil painting; this knowledge he brought to Venice in 1475. The brothers Bellini combined Northern mastery of colours with Italian vision and technique and thus laid the foundation for the great flowering of Venetian art. ANTONELLO DA MESSINA (c. 1430-1479) studied and copied the Dutch, probably in Naples, so that he was able, during a stay in Venice ( 1475/76), to introduce to local painters the technique of improving egg tempera by adding oil. This led to a new era in Venetian painting. The main product of his stay in Venice is the 'St Sebastian' in Dresden, a picture which unites Dutch and Italian concepts without any apparent discrepancies. He was also an excellent portraitist ('Condottiere', Louvre, Male portrait, London). Contemporary with Bartolommeo there came into the field of Venetian art two other strong personalities--Antonello da Messina and Carlo Crivelli. In Antonello da Messina we see a remarkable figure who was not the product of any of the forces we have been considering, and who had a preponderating influence over his generation. He first appears in Venice about 1470, and he had an extraordinary effect on both the Vivarini and the Bellini. Apparently a Sicilian, his early training, judging from technique, was certainly Flemish, and it is assumed that he introduced painting in oils into Venice; yet he is more Italian than northern. He adopted a technique from others; his quality was his own. He was a unique artist, part mystic, part literalist, a little inscrutable, of narrow scope, but of great force. In his portraits and in certain religious pictures the effect is not of detail but of simplified form and of an amazing characterisation, a psychological insight and its ruthless presentation--very earnest, intensely alive and tangible. The technical means, which may lack refinement, are forgotten. We care for nothing but the image itself. Antonello accepts the facts of life as he sees them, and presents them sheerly. He is ascetic in some work, probably early, but he is always superb in breadth of treatment, in design, and in tone. We cite two examples. The Calvary at Antwerp exhibits a realism that is very interesting in its disregard for beauty, especially in the two thieves, although the landscape is exquisite, large, and rich. His London Christ on the Cross ( 1465), on the other hand, is marvellous for its solemn sweetness. We feel the dignity of the figure upon the cross, the isolation of the watchers, the desolation of the solitary place, the peace lying over the scene.