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{{short description|Italian painter (died 1479)}}
{{Redirect|Antonello||Antonello (name)}}
{{Renaissance Italian name|Messina|Antonello}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Antonello da Messina
| image         = Antonello da Messina - Portrait of a Man - National Gallery London.jpg
| imagesize     = 222
| caption       = [[Portrait of a Man (Antonello da Messina, London)|''Portrait of a Man'']], possibly a self-portrait
| birth_name    = Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio
| birth_date    = c. 1425–1430
| birth_place   = [[Messina]], [[Kingdom of Sicily]]
| death_date    = February {{death year and age|1479|1430}}
| death_place   = Messina, Kingdom of Sicily
| nationality   = Italian
| field         = Painting
| training      = 
| movement      = [[Italian Renaissance]]
| works         =  
| patrons       = 
| influenced by =
| influenced    =
| awards        = 
}}
'''Antonello da Messina''' ({{IPA|it|antoˈnɛllo da (m)mesˈsiːna}}; {{circa}} 1425–1430{{snd}}February 1479), properly '''Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio''', but also called '''Antonello degli Antoni'''<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8upKAAAAcAAJ Memorie istorico-critiche di Antonello degli Antonj pittore Messinese] by [[Tommaso Puccini]], Florence 1809.</ref> and [[Anglicization|Anglicized]] as '''Anthony of Messina''', was an Italian painter from [[Messina]], active during the Italian [[Early Renaissance]].

His work shows strong influences from [[Early Netherlandish painting]], although there is no documentary evidence that he ever travelled beyond Italy.{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=13}} [[Giorgio Vasari]] credited him with the introduction of [[oil painting]] into Italy,{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=14}} although this is now regarded as wrong.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Campbell |first1=Caroline |title=Saint Jerome in his Study' in 10 minutes |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds_fYJ-pNlY |website=YouTube |publisher=National Gallery |access-date=24 April 2022}}</ref> Unusually for a southern Italian artist of the Renaissance, his work proved influential on painters in northern Italy, especially in [[Venice]].

==Biography==

===Early life and training===
[[File:Antonello da Messina - St Jerome in his study - National Gallery London.jpg|thumbnail|Antonello's ''[[St Jerome in His Study (Antonello da Messina)|St Jerome in His Study]]'', c.{{Nbsp}}1475]]
Antonello was born at [[Messina]] 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Gothic Art|publisher=Peebles Press International|year=1974|isbn=0-85690-033-8|editor-last=Lesberg|editor-first=Sandy|location=New York|chapter=Glossary of Gothic Art|oclc=2163980|orig-year=1966}}</ref>

Antonello is thought to have apprenticed in Rome before going to [[Naples]],<ref name=":0" /> 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 Antonio Colantonio|Niccolò Colantonio]] in Naples.<ref>The letter to the Venetian Marcantonio Michiel, of 20 March 1524, reporting on the state of art in Naples, and works there by Netherlandish painters, dwells upon Colantonio and his Netherlandish technique, which one sees assimilated in the art of Antonello; it was published by Fausto Niccolini, ''L'arte napoletana del Rinascimento'' (Naples) 1925:161-63. It is translated in Carol M. Richardson, Kim Woods, and Michael W. Franklin, ''Renaissance Art Reconsidered: An Anthology of Primary Sources'' (2007:193-96).</ref> This account of his training is accepted by most art historians.{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=15}}

===Early career===
Antonello returned to Messina from Naples during the 1450s.{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=13}} In around 1455, he painted the so-called ''[[Sibiu Crucifixion]]'', inspired by [[Flemish people|Flemish]] treatments of the subject, which is now in the Muzeul de Artă 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]] that belonged to Colantonio's patron, [[Alfonso V of Aragon]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}} 
[[File:Antonello da messina, madonna salting.jpg|thumbnail| Antonello's ''[[Salting Madonna]]'']]

In his biography of the artist, [[Giorgio Vasari]] remarked that Antonello saw an [[oil painting]] by Van Eyck (the ''Lomellini Tryptych'') belonging to King Alfonso V of Aragon at Naples and consequently introduced oil painting to Italy.{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=14}} 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.<ref name="Raunch pg. 361">Raunch pg. 361</ref> 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 Petrus Christus was the first Netherlandish painter to learn Italian [[linear perspective]].<ref name="Raunch pg. 361"/> 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.<ref>Hartt pg. 562</ref> 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.<ref name="Raunch pg. 361"/>{{Full citation needed|date=August 2020}} He is believed to have shared Van Eyck's techniques with [[Gentile Bellini|Gentile]] and [[Giovanni Bellini]].<ref name=":0" />

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/benezit/B00005731|title=Antonello da Messina|website=Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=13 February 2017}}</ref> The artist's earliest documented commission, in 1457, was for a banner for the Confraternità di San Michele dei Gerbini in [[Reggio Calabria]], where he set up a workshop for the production of such banners and devotional images.{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=13}} At this date, he was already married, and his son [[Jacobello da Messina|Jacobello]] had been born.

In 1460, his father is mentioned leasing a [[brigantine]] to bring back Antonello and his family from [[Amantea]] in Calabria. 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]]. Also from around 1460 are two small panels depicting [[St. Jerome and Abraham panels (Antonello da Messina)|''Abraham Served by the Angels'' and ''St. Jerome Penitent'']] now in the [[Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia]] in [[Reggio Calabria]]. In 1461 Antonello's younger brother Giordano entered his workshop, signing a three-year contract.  In that year Antonello painted a ''Madonna with Child'', now lost, for the Messinese nobleman Giovanni Mirulla.

Historians believe that Antonello painted his first portraits in the late 1460s. They follow a [[Early Netherlandish painting|Netherlandish model]], the subject being shown bust-length, against a dark background, full face or in three-quarter view,{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=23}}  while most previous Italian painters had adopted the medal-style profile pose for individual portraits.{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=51}}  [[John Pope-Hennessy]] described Antonello as "the first Italian  painter for whom the individual portrait was an art form in its own right".{{sfn|Pope-Hennessy|1966|p=60}}

[[File:Virgin Annunciate (by Antonello da Messina) - Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, Palermo.jpg|thumb|left| The [[Virgin Annunciate (Antonello da Messina, Palermo)|''Virgin Annunciate'']] in the [[Palazzo Abatellis]] in [[Palermo]]]]
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.{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=51}}  In 1474, he painted the ''Annunciation'', now in [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]], and the ''[[St. Jerome in His Study (Antonello da Messina)|St. Jerome in His Study]]'' also dates from around this time.{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=22}}

===Venice===
Antonello went to [[Venice]] 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]]'' and the ''[[St. Sebastian (Antonello da Messina)|St. Sebastian]]''. 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<ref>Hartt pg. 563</ref> and the principles of calmness on subjects' faces and in the composition of paintings to Giovanni Bellini and other Venetian painters during that visit.<ref>Hartt pg. 563; Raunch pg. 361</ref> While in Venice he was offered, but did not accept, the opportunity to become the court portrait painter to the [[Galeazzo Maria Sforza|Duke of Milan]].{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=29}}

===Return to Messina and death===
Antonello had returned to Sicily by September 1476.{{sfn|Barbera|2005|p=23}} Works from near the end of his life include the famous ''[[Virgin Annunciate (Antonello da Messina, Palermo)|Virgin Annunciate]]'', now in the [[Palazzo Abatellis]] in [[Palermo]], and the [[San Gregorio Polyptych]].

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.
[[File:Antonello da Messina 031.jpg|thumb|''[[Crucifixion (Antonello da Messina)|Crucifixion]]'', Antwerp, detail]]

==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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} However, no school of painting formed after his death, with the exception of the Sicilian [[Marco Costanzo]].

==Selected works==<!-- This section is linked from [[Antonello da Messina]] -->
*''[[Sibiu Crucifixion]]'' (1455) <small>- [[Brukenthal National Museum]], [[Sibiu]]</small>
*''[[St. Jerome and Abraham panels (Antonello da Messina)|Abraham Served by the Angels]]'' <small>- Museo della Magna Grecia, [[Reggio Calabria]]</small>
*''[[Male portraits of Antonello da Messina|Portrait of a Man]]'' (1460s) <small>- Oil on wood, [[Pavia Civic Museums|Civic Museums]], [[Pavia]]</small>
*''[[Ecce Homo (Antonello da Messina)|Ecce Homo]]'' (c. 1470) <small>- Tempera and oil on panel, 42.5 x 30.5&nbsp;cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York City</small>
*''[[Ecce Homo (Antonello da Messina)|Ecce Homo]]'' (1470) <small>- Tempera and oil on panel, 40 x 33&nbsp;cm, Galleria Nazionale di [[Palazzo Spinola di Pellicceria|Palazzo Spinola]], [[Genoa]]</small>
*''[[St. Jerome and Abraham panels (Antonello da Messina)|St. Jerome Penitent]]'' <small>- Various techniques on wood, 40.2 x 30.2&nbsp;cm, Museo della Magna Grecia, [[Reggio Calabria]]</small>
*''[[San Gregorio Polyptych]]'' (1473) <small>- Tempera on panel, 194 x 202&nbsp;cm, Regional Museum, [[Messina]]</small>
*''[[Ecce Homo (Antonello da Messina)|Ecce Homo]]'' (c. 1473) <small>- Tempera on panel, 19.5 x 14.3&nbsp;cm, Private collection, New York City</small>
*''[[Male portraits of Antonello da Messina|Portrait of a Man]]'' (1474) <small>- Oil on wood, [[Staatliche Museen zu Berlin|Staatliche Museen]], Berlin</small>
*''[[Salting Madonna (Antonello da Messina)|Madonna with Child (Salting Madonna)]]'' <small>- Oil on wood, 43.2 x 34.3&nbsp;cm, National Gallery, London</small>
*''[[Portrait of a Man (Antonello da Messina)|Portrait of a Man]]'' (1474) <small>- Oil on wood, 32 x 26&nbsp;cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin</small>
*''[[Annunciation (Antonello da Messina)|Annunciation]]'' (1474) <small>- Oil on panel, 180 x 180&nbsp;cm, [[Bellomo Palace Regional Gallery]], [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]]</small>
*''[[St. Jerome in His Study (Antonello da Messina)|St. Jerome in His Study]]'' (c. 1474) <small>- Oil on wood, 46 x 36,5&nbsp;cm, [[National Gallery, London|National Gallery]], London</small>
*''[[Ecce Homo (Antonello da Messina)|Ecce Homo]]'' (1475) -<small> Oil on panel, 48.5 x 38&nbsp;cm, [[Collegio Alberoni]], [[Piacenza]]</small>
*''[[Il Condottiero (Antonello da Messina)|Portrait of a Man (Il Condottiere)]]'' (1475) <small>- Oil on wood, 35 x 38&nbsp;cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris</small>
*''[[Crucifixion (Antonello da Messina)|Crucifixion]]'' (1455) <small>- Oil on panel 52.5 x 42.5&nbsp;cm, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, [[Antwerp]]</small>
*''[[Crucifixion (Antonello da Messina)|Crucifixion]]'' (1475) <small>- Wood, 42 x 25,5&nbsp;cm, National Gallery, London</small>
*''[[Portrait of a Man (Antonello da Messina)|Portrait of a Man]]'' (c. 1475) <small>- Oil on wood, [[Galleria Borghese]], Rome</small>
*''[[Portrait of a Man (Antonello da Messina, London)|Portrait of a Man]]'' (c. 1475) <small>- Oil on panel, 36 x 25&nbsp;cm, National Gallery, London</small>
*''[[Portrait of a Man (Antonello da Messina, Madrid)|Portrait of a Man]]'' (1475–1476) <small>- Oil on panel, 28 x 21&nbsp;cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid</small>
*''[[San Cassiano Altarpiece]]'' (1475–76) <small>- Oil on panel, [[Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna]]</small>
*''[[The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel]]'' (1475–78) <small>- Panel, 74 x 51&nbsp;cm, [[Museo del Prado]], Madrid</small>
*''[[Christ at the Column (Antonello da Messina)|Christ at the Column]]'' (c. 1475–1479) <small>- Oil on wood, 25,8 x 21&nbsp;cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris</small>
*''[[Virgin of the Annunciation]]'' <small>-Oil on panel, [[Alte Pinakothek, Munich]]</small>
*''[[Portrait of a Man (Antonello da Messina, Turin)|Portrait of a Man]]'' (1476) <small>- Oil on panel, Museo Civico d'Arte Antica, Turin</small>
*''[[Virgin Annunciate (Antonello da Messina, Palermo)|Virgin of the Annunciation]]'' (c. 1476) <small>- Oil on wood, 45 x 34,5&nbsp;cm, Museo Nazionale, Palermo</small>
*''[[St. Sebastian (Antonello da Messina)|St. Sebastian]]'' (1477–1479) <small>- Oil on canvas [[Transfer of panel paintings|transferred from panel]], 171 × 85&nbsp;cm, [[Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden]]</small>
*''[[Portrait of a Man (Antonello da Messina, Berlin)|Portrait of a Young Man]]'' (c. 1478) <small>- Panel, 20.4 x 14.5&nbsp;cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin</small>
*''Portrait of an unknown man'' <small>- Oil on panel, Museo Mandralisca, [[Cefalù]]</small>
*''Madonna and Child'' <small>- Oil and tempera on panel transferred from panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.</small>

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
*{{cite book|title=Antonello da Messina, Sicily's Renaissance Master|last=Barbera |first=Giocchino|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art Yale University Press |location=New York|year=2005|type=exhibition catalogue}} {{ISBN|0-300-11648-9}} [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/51392 (online)].
* Christiansen, Keith. [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mess/hd_mess.htm “Antonello da Messina (ca. 1430–1479).”] In ''Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History''. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (March 2010)
* {{cite book|title=The Portrait in the Renaissance|first=John|last=Pope-Hennessy |publisher=Phaidon |location=London|year=1966}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Antonello da Messina|volume=2|page=148}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
*[http://www.all-art.org/gothic_era/messina1.html Antonello da Messina in the "History of Art"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013222836/http://www.all-art.org/gothic_era/messina1.html |date=13 October 2013 }}
*[http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/a/antonell/ Antonello da Messina – Biography and Works]
*[http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art24.htm ''Best of Sicily'' Magazine article on Antonello da Messina and the technique of egg tempera / oil media]
*{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Antonello da Messina|short=x}}
*[http://www.wga.hu/html_m/a/antonell/ Web Gallery of Art]
*[https://www.theguardian.com/arts/portrait/story/0,11109,740337,00.html ''Guardian'' article on ''Portrait of a Man'']
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/91807/rec/320 ''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)
*[https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2005/antonello-da-messina Antonello da Messina: Sicily's Renaissance Master] 2005 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

{{Antonello da Messina}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonello Da Messina}}
[[Category:Italian Renaissance painters]]
[[Category:Quattrocento painters]]
[[Category:1430s births]]
[[Category:1479 deaths]]
[[Category:Italian male painters]]
[[Category:Italian portrait painters]]
[[Category:Painters from Messina]]
[[Category:15th-century Sicilian people]]
[[Category:15th-century Italian painters]]
[[Category:Catholic painters]]
[[Category:Artists from the Kingdom of Sicily]]