Antonello da Messina (1429/1431 - 1479) - Italian artist, a prominent representative of the southern Italian school of painting of the early Renaissance.
Biography of Antonello da Messina
Antonello was born in the city of Messina in Sicily between 1429 and 1431.
Initial training took place in a provincial school, far from the artistic centers of Italy, where the main reference points were the masters of Southern France, Catalonia and the Netherlands.
Around 1450 he moved to Naples. In the early 1450s he studied with Colantonio, a painter associated with the Dutch tradition.
Died in Messina in 1479.
Works of Antonello da Messina
In 1475-1476 yes Messina visited Venice, where he received and fulfilled orders, made friends with artists, especially Giovanni Bellini, who adopted his painting technique to a certain extent.
Antonello da Messina's mature work is a fusion of Italian and Dutch elements. He was one of the first in Italy to work in clean technology oil painting, largely borrowing it from Van Eyck.
The artist's style is characterized high level technical virtuosity, careful attention to detail and interest in monumentalism of forms and depth of background, characteristic of the Italian school.
In the painting “Dead Christ Supported by Angels,” the figures stand out clearly against an illuminated light background, where Messina, hometown artist. The iconography and emotional interpretation of the theme are associated with the work of Giovanni Bellini.
The paintings he painted in Venice are among the best. “Crucifixions” (1475, Antwerp) speaks of the artist’s Dutch training.
In the 1470s, portraits began to occupy a significant place in creativity (“Young Man,” c. 1470; “Self-Portrait,” c. 1473; “ Portrait of a man", 1475, etc.), marked by the features of Dutch art: a dark neutral background, accurate reproduction of the model’s facial expressions.
His portrait art left a deep imprint on Venetian painting at the end of the 15th century. - beginning of the 16th century
The work of Antonello da Messina is an example of how in Italian painting, from about 1470, new forms of portraiture spread in various centers almost simultaneously, sometimes independently of each other, and often thanks to the establishment of contacts between art schools and the defining role of several leading masters.
So, simultaneously with Mantegna in the 1470s, on the distant outskirts - in Sicily, another greatest master portrait - Antonello da Messina, who created a number of works that are examples of a three-quarter bust portrait, which for decades determined the main path of development of the Venetian portrait (in addition, he conquered the Venetians by teaching them to write oil paints).
He is, in the strict sense of the word, the first Italian master of easel portraiture. He never painted frescoes with hidden portraits or donors in altar paintings.
About 10 reliable portraits of him have survived, but in the development of easel portrait painting It occupies a very important place in the early Renaissance.
Artist's works
- Crucifixion. 1475 National Gallery. London
- Maria Annunziata. About 1476. National Museum. Palermo
- Crucifixion with Mary and John. 1475. Museum of Fine Arts. Antwerp
- Maria Annunziata. 1473. Old Pinakothek. Munich
- St. Sebastian. 1476. Gallery of old masters. Dresden
- Antonello da Messina. “Portrait of an Old Man (Trivulzio de Milano)”, Turin
- Antonello da Messina. T.n. "Condottiere", Louvre
- Annunciation. 1473
"Crucifixion". 1475. Wood, oil. National Gallery, London.
IN Lately In world art history, works have appeared in which the authors try to determine the identity of the man depicted here. Some suggest that this is not an imaginary image of the holy translator of the Bible into Latin, but a portrait of one of the humanists or, perhaps, the Neapolitan king Alfonso. It’s hard to say; the discussion has just begun and, apparently, will not end any time soon. But this is not the main thing. The main thing here is the feeling of habitability, a certain organic connection between a person and his environment as a comparable, proportionate and consonant environment for a person in which he resides and which at the same time he, as it were, spiritually commands.
Apparently, quickly after arriving in Venice, Antonello painted “The Crucifixion” - one of two versions of the “Crucifixion” of his work that have survived. And here we are dealing, rather, with Dutch than with Italian composition and iconographic scheme. The very high cross on which Christ is crucified is, rather, a Dutch motif - Rogier van der Weyden painted “The Crucifixion” this way, and other artists of the mid-15th century. Instead of the traditional crucifixion of Mary and John, as was customary in Italian art, here the same figures are depicted literally sank to the ground, sitting, on the one hand, in complete exhaustion, and on the other, in a state of some kind of mournful meditation.
The problem of meditation, pious reflection on the Passion of the Lord, will become a purely Venetian topic. We will see it in Carpaccio, in a slightly modified form in Giovanni Bellini and other artists. Signs of the environs of Venice are sometimes seen in the landscape, which is presented in the background. In any case, there is such a point of view that the artist is not sinning here against the truth by depicting some specific, real architecture.
"Crucifixion". 1475. Wood, oil. Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp.
Two small plaques are interesting from both an iconographic and artistic point of view: one was painted in 1473, the other in 1475-1476. in Venice. They represent the same iconographic type of “Maria Annunziata” (“Mary of the Annunciation”). It is a relatively rare case when the Annunciation itself is not depicted as a scene, but Antonello’s image of Mary itself is bust-length. (He often resorts to such a chamber form of a bust-length image, not only in a portrait, as we will see, but also when referring to religious image. Several times he paints Christ wearing a crown of thorns, also depicting him from the chest). In these works, the presence of the archangel is only implied; Mary, as it were, sees him with her inner vision and hears him with her inner hearing. The psychological effect of the inner voice, the voice of the deity, resounding in the girl’s mind, is clearly of interest to the artist. It is remarkable how this supernatural phenomenon of Arkhangelsk speech transforms the almost peasant, seemingly even rustic appearance of Mary.
"Maria Annunziata". Wood, oil. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
The same features of the internal make-up, despite the fact that the character is somewhat more strictly defined, make it possible to talk about more strong personality in another composition on the same topic. The traditional parapet, which in Crivelli and many other artists always runs parallel to the foreground and is shallow, Antonello unfolds here into a whole composition - the parapet or table, it’s hard to say, is depicted diagonally, and on it stands a music stand with a book, which immediately pushes the figure into depth, enhancing the sense of spatiality.
"Maria Annunziata". About 1476. Wood, oil. National Museum, Palermo.
In these half-figure, or bust-length compositions, as in the portraits discussed below, the master resorts to a black background. For Antonello this is fundamentally important; it is one of the components of his sense of form. A shape, say, the shape of a head, is modeled differently in the case when it is depicted against a light background, for example against the sky, and against a dark, in the extreme case a black, opaque background. There are difficulties in both cases. A head on a light or slightly darkened background, if it is painted against the light, requires the finest attention to the details of the values, details that we can call Leonardo’s term “sfumato” *. And the black background seems to push out the brightly lit volume. A relatively light volume against a dark background always seems particularly stereoscopic, extremely natural in volume. These effects, which are initially inherent in the contrast of light and shadow and which are characteristic of this contrast, are often, actively and very skillfully used by Antonello da Messina in order to achieve greater lifelikeness.
By 1475-1476 include such famous things by the master as “St. Sebastian” and several portraits.
"St. Sebastian." ca.1475. Wood, oil. Dresden Gallery.
“St. Sebastian” (1475) was written by Antonello da Messina almost simultaneously with Botticelli (1473). Of course, there is no need to talk about any connection between these two works. Antonello da Messina came to Venice from the south of Italy. Most likely, he did not see “St. Sebastian” by Botticelli. All the more interesting is the certain similarity between these images. An image of ideal nudity, and a certain almost lyrical detachment. The execution scene, the martyrdom scene, turns into something else. However, we need to recall the moment that disappears for modern viewer, but was perfectly familiar to the then Catholic believer - St. Sebastian did not die from arrows, according to his life. He was actually shot by archers, he was wounded, but survived, the pious widow St. Irina came out to him, cured him, and only then, according to the Martyrology*, St. Sebastian was stoned to death and his body was thrown into a Roman sewer. This is partly why the saint’s disastrous martyrdom was not always emphasized. But Antonello completely removes the tragic motive, unlike Mantegna, who sometimes tried to thicken the dramatic colors somewhat outwardly theatrically. It is quite obvious that Antonello da Messina receives artistic pleasure from the embodiment of the very motive - the ideally beautiful human body. Lying next to St. Sebastian's overthrow of the column was supposed to be a sign of martyrdom. A broken, overturned column is a symbol of an early, timeless, most often - tragic death. There is an element of almost inexplicable fantasy in the depiction of the environment surrounding the hero. A tree that somewhat inexplicably grows directly from stone slabs. But, it seems, the artist is not embarrassed by such liberties in handling nature, everything is redeemed by something else - for the first time, perhaps, with Antonello da Messina, largely thanks to his new, progressive technique of oil painting, the sun began to sparkle on the forms and air appeared in the image. It is also necessary to keep in mind that this Dresden painting is very damaged, it has come to us with large losses of the author’s layer, in particular the sky in the lower openings, in some places there are large losses on the saint’s body, they are simply tinted gray. In general, Antonello da Messina, in terms of the physical safety of his belongings, was very unlucky. Most of his works have reached us in damaged, sometimes dilapidated, form. And yet, among Italian masters he was perhaps the first to convey the feeling sunlight, the feeling of air that envelops objects. He slightly softens the contours, trying to simulate volumes with color. The line is present, but does not triumph, as in Florentine painting. It was with Antonello da Messina, and then with Giovanni Bellini, that purely Venetian drawing with paints began, which I spoke of as distinctive feature schools in general.
The image of St. Sebastian created by Antonello does not contain the psychologism that researchers and art historians sometimes talk about. The fact is that the artist is fundamentally not interested in developing the passive psychology.
In architecture we recognize the features of Venetian buildings - arcades, balconies, galleries; we can see something similar in the “Annunciation” by Carlo Crivelli. However, “St. Sebastian” by Antonello da Messina still leaves room for some iconographic mysteries and various hypotheses. Some details have no clear interpretation. What does it mean, for example, the image of a man lying directly on the slabs with a spear or, more precisely, with a hook. One of the art historians wrote that the artist gives here such a marginal figure of a city dweller who is lying down right on the square, basking in the sun. This may be true, but for the 15th century. this is clearly not the subject of the image, even a marginal one. And some other details - what does the image of the city guards mean; one of them is also with a spear-hook. Apparently, the image of St. Sebastian embodies another of his functions - a protector from the plague, one of the holy healers. There were many such healers, there were universal healers - in all cases they resorted to the help and protection of the Madonna; prayed for health and healing from illnesses to Kozma and Damian; from gangrene, from erysipelas, from syphilis, which in the 15th century. was brought to Europe from America, they prayed to St. Anthony, the very expression “Antonov’s fire”, which has survived almost to this day, means “gangrene”, “erysipelas”. And St. Sebastian, St. Roch, St. Thecla are saviors from the plague. It is very possible that the artist is hinting here at some real events. In Europe they were very afraid of the plague, and although after 1348 - the terrible year of the Black Death, which we remember in connection with some works of the Quattrocento period, and in literature in connection with Boccaccio - there were no such powerful outbreaks of this disease in Europe, local the outbreaks still persisted. Moreover, sometimes epidemics of other diseases were called plague. The art of medical diagnosis was not at a high level at that time. Dürer, for example, remembering his mother, writes somewhere that she was sick many times with plague, cholera and other terrible diseases. And if you look closely, above the entrance to one of the buildings you can discern a relief depicting a holy warrior, it seems, Archangel Michael, who was also one of the saviors from the plague. Similar reliefs were installed above the entrance to hospitals and city hospitals. The lying man with the gaff in this context could be an infected city guard. The guards were given metal poles with hooks, which they used to drag the corpses away so as not to touch them with their hands. The soldiers in the depths have the same equipment. One should not be surprised that the artist, depicting motifs of the plague, does not thicken the atmosphere, does not make the sky menacing or the air gloomy. These signs may be of a protective nature. In any case, this is one of the interpretations of the motives presented here. In my opinion, it is more convincing than afternoon rest, a fiesta of townspeople lounging in the sun. But in general, this is evidence that every detail, which may not even touch the attention of a modern viewer, in old art was certainly significant, filled with meaning, saying something to the viewer of that time.
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* “Martyrologium” (Latin) (from the Greek “martys” - martyr and “logos” - word) - a collection of stories about the holy martyrs of the Christian Church.
Antonello from Messina, an Italian artist of the Early Renaissance, painted, of course, not only portraits.
But it is portraiture that is the pinnacle of his work. His portrait art left a deep mark on late Venetian painting XV-beginning XVI centuries
From the biography
Antonello da Messina. Self-portrait
The artist was born in the city of Messina (Sicily) between 1429 and 1431. He graduated from a provincial school. Then he moved to Naples (around 1450), where he began his studies with Colantonio(Niccolò Antonio). Much information about Antonello's life is lost, doubtful or controversial. However, it is known that since Colantonio studied Flemish art, especially the work of Jan van Eyck, the Dutch traditions of painting found a response in the work of Antonello da Messina. And in his mature works, the fusion of Italian and Dutch techniques was especially clearly manifested.
Colantonio was the first Italian artist to paint in oils. He borrowed the technique of pure oil painting from Jan van Eyck. And then Antonello da Messina began working in this technique.
In 1475-1476 yes Messina worked on orders in Venice. There he met many artists and especially became friends with Giovanni Bellini. It is believed that Antonello da Messina's paintings painted in Venice are the best in his work.
Antonello da Messina "The Crucifixion" (1475). National Gallery (London)
The gospel story is conveyed by the artist in the Dutch style and in his own way. As you know, the execution of Jesus Christ was witnessed by 4 people (not counting the crucified robbers, Roman soldiers and the people standing around): His Mother Mary, the Evangelist John, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleopas. But Antonello da Messina depicts in his painting only the Virgin Mary and John, to whom Jesus entrusted the care of his mother: “Jesus, seeing the Mother and the disciple standing here, whom he loved, says to His Mother: Woman! Behold, Your son. Then he says to the disciple: Behold, your Mother! And from that time on, this disciple took Her to himself” (John 19:26-27).
In the background of the painting is the artist’s hometown, Messina.
Antonello da Messina "Dead Christ supported by an angel"
Against a light background, the artist’s hometown of Messina is difficult to distinguish, but the figures of Christ and an angel emerge clearly. The angel is quietly crying, his eyes have darkened, his eyelids have turned red, two almost invisible tears have left wet marks on his face...
Antonello da Messina “Ecce Homo” (“Behold, man”). Piacenza, Civic Museum
“Here is a man” - the words of Pontius Pilate about Jesus Christ.
View human suffering unbearably painful. The naked Christ, with a rope around his neck and tears on his face, gazes at us. The figure almost completely fills the field of the picture; the interpretation of the plot moves away from iconographic abstraction towards conveying the physical and psychological reality of the image of Christ, which forces us to focus on the meaning of his suffering.
Portraits by Antonello da Messina
Antonello was Italian by birth, but by art education he belonged largely to the pictorial tradition northern Europe. He was one of the most remarkable portrait painters of his time. Almost a third of his surviving works are portraits.
The artist's style is distinguished by technical virtuosity and careful attention to detail, as well as the depth of the background. All these characteristics are also characteristic of his portraits, which since 1470 have become the main genre of his work. Antonello's portrait genre is marked by the features of Dutch art: a dark neutral background, an accurate rendering of the model's facial expressions. The artist is considered a master of the three-quarter bust portrait. In fact, he is the first Italian master of easel portraiture. About 10 reliable portraits of him have survived, but he occupies a very important place in the development of easel portraiture of the Early Renaissance.
Antonello da Messina. “Portrait of a Man (possibly “Self-Portrait”). National Gallery (London)
His portrait compositions are practically unchanged, because... he relied on the long-established tradition of Dutch portraiture: he always paints the model bust-length, with a parapet, always wearing a headdress and looking directly at the viewer. He never paints hands or depicts accessories.
Thanks to the parapet in the foreground and the perspective frame, the portrait bust, slightly set back in depth, acquires spatiality, and the point of view slightly below gives the image a touch of monumentality.
On the “stone” parapet there is always a crumpled piece of paper “attached” with a drop of sealing wax, with the inscription “Antonello Messinets wrote me” and the date.
The light in a portrait usually falls from the left, towards the face. The shadows subtly sculpt the face.
We have already emphasized closeness several times portrait genre Antonello to Dutch art. So, modern x-ray research methods show that the painting technique, deep and colorful tones of Antonello’s portraits are identical in technique to Dutch painting.
But Antonello’s method also has its own characteristics. His drawing is deliberately rounded and simplified, his portraits are more generalized. And some art critics even see in them a resemblance to a round painted sculpture, because... facial shapes have a three-dimensional image.
The earliest portrait by Antonello da Messina is considered to be “Portrait of an Unknown Man” from Cefalu.
Antonello da Messina “Portrait of a Man” (Cefalu)
Unlike the Dutch portraits, the character in this painting smiles. Antonello was the first artist of the 15th century to discover the expressiveness of a smile.
"Condottierre" (1475)- one of the most “Dutch” portraits of Antonello in terms of execution technique and one of the most Italian in spirit.
The name of the customer of the canvas is unknown.
A courageous young man looks at the viewer. He does not try to please anyone, but looks arrogantly and as if with threat and contempt. The dark background and dark clothing contrast with the well-lit face - in fact, this was the artist’s goal: to focus the viewer’s attention only on the face.
The artist himself did not give the title to the painting; it was given later by the viewers themselves. In this person, the audience saw a condottiere (the leader of military detachments (companies) who were in the service of city-communes and sovereigns and consisted mainly of foreigners, i.e., in fact, a mercenary).
The gaze of the “condottiere” is boring, intense and frozen. The artist’s point of view is slightly above, so the face gains greater mobility, the eyes are more slanted, the shadows create a more clear relief of the face.
Antonello da Messina “Portrait of an Old Man” (Turin)
The portrait of an old man is considered a masterpiece of that time. The artist depicted a man with a touch of ironic disdain on his face. This impression is achieved by a strong downward shift in point of view. Thanks to this technique, the features of Antonello’s portrait art are particularly sharp: the character’s pupils are in sharp movement; the head seems to turn, following the quick glance.
Art critics note the emphasized democracy of the images created by the artist. Antonello da Messina demonstrates their human, personal uniqueness, and not class exclusivity.
Antonello da Messina died in Venice in 1479. His paintings are very rare; a significant part of them is kept in the Venice Academy, in the London National Gallery and in Berlin; in Vienna there is his “Savior in the Tomb”, in Messina - church paintings. His work had a significant influence on the development of Early Renaissance painting.
During the Early Renaissance he represented the southern school of painting. He was the teacher of Girolamo Alibrandi, who was nicknamed Raphael of Messina. To achieve depth of color in poignant portraits and poetic paintings, he used oil painting techniques. In the article we will pay attention short biography artist and will dwell on his works in more detail.
Representative of the new direction
Much information about the life of Antonello da Messina is controversial, doubtful or lost. But it is quite obvious that it was he who demonstrated to the Venetian artists the luminous possibilities of oil painting. Thus, the Italian laid the foundation for one of the key trends in Western European art. Following the example of many other artists of that time, Antonello combined the Dutch tradition of optically accurate reproduction of image details with the pictorial innovations of the Italians.
Historians have found a record that in 1456 the hero of this article had a student. That is, most likely, the painter was born before 1430. The Neopolitan Colantonio was the first teacher of Antonello da Messina, whose works will be described below. This fact is confirmed by the message of G. Vasari. Just at that time, Naples was under the cultural influence of the Iberian Peninsula, the Netherlands and France, rather than Northern Italy and Tuscany. Under the influence of the work of Van Eyck and his supporters, interest in painting increased every day. There were rumors that the hero of this article learned the technique of oil painting from him.
Portrait master
Antonello da Messina was an Italian by birth, but his artistic education was largely related to the pictorial traditions of northern Europe. He painted portraits superbly, which make up almost thirty percent of his surviving works. Antonello usually depicted the model from the chest up and in close-up. In this case, the shoulders and head were placed on dark background. Sometimes in the foreground the artist painted a parapet with a cartellino (a small piece of paper with an inscription) attached to it. The illusionistic precision and graphic quality in the rendering of these details indicate that they are of Dutch origin.
"Male Portrait"
This painting was painted by Antonello da Messina in 1474-1475. is one of his most best works. The master's palette is limited to rich brown, black and individual strokes of flesh and white flowers. The exception is the red cap, complemented by a peeking dark red stripe of the underdress. Inner world the drawn model is practically not revealed. But the face radiates intelligence and energy. Antonello modeled it very subtly with chiaroscuro. The sharp depiction of facial features combined with the play of light gives Antonello’s work an almost sculptural expressiveness.
"This is a man"
The Italian’s portraits attract the viewer with their glossy, shiny surface and intimate format. And when Messina transfers these qualities into religious painting (the painting “This is a Man”), the sight of human suffering becomes terribly painful.
With tears on his face and a rope around his neck, the naked Christ gazes at the viewer. His figure fills almost the entire field of the canvas. The interpretation of the plot is slightly different from the iconographic theme. The Italian sought to convey the psychological and physical image of Christ as realistically as possible. This is what makes the viewer focus on the meaning of Jesus' suffering.
"Maria Annunziata" by Antonello da Messina
This work, unlike the painting “This is a Man,” has a completely different mood. But it also requires inner experience and emotional participation from the viewer. As for “Maria Annunziata,” Antonello seems to place the viewer in the place of the archangel in space. This gives a feeling of mental participation. The Virgin Mary, sitting behind the music stand, holds the blue blanket thrown over her with her left hand, and she raises her other hand. The woman is completely calm and thoughtful, her evenly lit, sculptural head seems to radiate light against the dark background of the picture.
“Maria Annunziata” is not the only bust-length portrait of a woman painted by Antonello da Messina. “The Annunciation” is the name of another similar canvas by the painter, which depicts the same Virgin Mary, only in a different pose: she holds a blue veil with both hands.
In both he tried to express the feeling of a woman’s spiritual connection with higher powers. Her facial expression, the posture of her hands and head, as well as her gaze tell the viewer that Mary is now far from the mortal world. And the black background of the paintings only emphasizes the detachment of the Mother of God.
"St. Jerome in his cell"
In the paintings discussed above there is not even minimal interest in the problem of conveying the surrounding space. But in other works the painter was significantly ahead of his time in this regard. In the painting “St. Jerome in his cell” depicts the saint reading at a music stand. His office is located inside a Gothic hall, on the back wall of which there are windows cut into two floors. In the foreground the image is framed by a border and an arch. They are perceived as proscenium (a technique common in the art of countries located north of the Alps). The mustard color of the stone emphasizes the contrast of shadow and light inside the cave-like room. The details of the picture (landscape in the distance, birds, objects on the shelves) are conveyed with very high degree accuracy. This effect can only be achieved by applying oil paint in fairly small strokes. But the most important advantage of da Messina’s painting lies not in the reliable rendering of details, but in stylistic unity air environment and light.
Monumental altar
In 1475-1476 the artist lived in Venice. There he painted a magnificent altarpiece for the Church of San Cassiano. Unfortunately, only its central part has survived to this day, where the Madonna and Child towering on the throne is depicted. On both sides of her are saints. This altar belongs to the type of sacra conversion. That is, the saints are in the same space. And this is the opposite in form to a polyptych divided into parts. The reconstruction of the monumental altar was based on more late works Giovanni Bellini.
"Pieta" and "Crucifixion"
Antonello's oil painting, or more precisely, the ability to convey lighting with this technique, was very highly appreciated by his fellow artists. From that time on, Venetian colorism was based exclusively on developing the great potential of a new direction. Da Messina's works of the Venetian period have the same conceptual tendency as his early works. The heavily worn Pietà, even in its damaged state, fills viewers with an intense sense of compassion. On the lid of the tomb, the dead body of Christ is held by three angels with pointed wings cutting through the air. The artist depicted the central figure in close-up.
It is as if pressed to the surface of the canvas. Empathy for the depicted suffering is what Antonello da Messina achieved using the above technique. “The Crucifixion” is another painting by the painter. It is similar in theme to the Pietà. The canvas depicts Jesus crucified on the cross. To his right sits Mary, and to his left is the Apostle John. Just like the Pieta, the painting aims to evoke empathy in the viewer.
"Saint Sebastian"
This painting is an example of how Antonello competed in the depiction of heroic nudity and mastery of linear perspective with his northern Italian colleagues. Against the backdrop of the stone-paved square, the body of the saint pierced by arrows takes on enormous dimensions. The space rushing into the depths, a fragment of a column in the foreground and a perspective with a very low vanishing point indicate that the painter used the principles of Euclidean geometry in constructing the composition.
- Antonello da Messina, whose paintings were described above, usually depicted his heroes chest-length, close-up and against a dark background.
- According to G. Vasari, the Italian traveled to the Netherlands to find out the secret new technology painting. However this fact not proven.
- It has not yet been reliably established who taught the hero of this article oil painting. According to rumors, it was Van Eyck.
Antonello da Messina (Italian: Antonello da Messina ca. 1429(1429)/1431 - 1479) - Italian artist, a prominent representative of the southern Italian school of painting of the Early Renaissance.
Teacher of Girolamo Alibrandi, nicknamed "Raphael of Messina".
Antonello was born in the city of Messina in Sicily between 1429 and 1431. His initial training took place in a provincial school, far from the artistic centers of Italy, where the main reference points were the masters of Southern France, Catalonia and the Netherlands. Around 1450 he moved to Naples. In the early 1450s he studied with Colantonio, a painter associated with the Dutch tradition. In 1475-1476 Yes Messina visited Venice, where he received and fulfilled orders, and became friends with artists, especially Giovanni Bellini, who adopted his painting technique to a certain extent.
Antonello da Messina's mature work is a fusion of Italian and Dutch elements. He was one of the first in Italy to work in the technique of pure oil painting, largely borrowing it from Van Eyck.
The artist's style is characterized by a high level of technical virtuosity, careful attention to detail and an interest in monumentalism of forms and depth of background, characteristic of the Italian school.
In the painting “Dead Christ Supported by Angels,” the figures stand out clearly against an illuminated light background, where Messina, the artist’s hometown, is dimly visible. The iconography and emotional treatment of the theme are associated with the work of Giovanni Bellini.
The paintings he painted in Venice are among the best. “Crucifixions” (1475, Antwerp) speaks of the artist’s Dutch training.
In the 1470s, portraits began to occupy a significant place in creativity (“Young Man,” c. 1470; “Self-Portrait,” c. 1473; “Portrait of a Man,” 1475, etc.), marked by the features of Dutch art: dark neutral background, accurate rendering facial expressions of the model. His portrait art left a deep imprint on Venetian painting at the end of the 15th century. - beginning of the 16th century
Died in Messina in 1479.
The work of Antonello da Messina is an example of how in Italian painting, from about 1470, new forms of portraiture spread in various centers almost simultaneously, sometimes independently of each other, and often thanks to the establishment of contacts between art schools and the determining role of several leading masters. Thus, simultaneously with Mantegna in the 1470s, on the distant outskirts of Sicily, another major portrait master, Antonello da Messina, emerged, who created a number of works that are examples of a three-quarter bust portrait, which for decades determined the main path of development of the Venetian portrait (in addition, he conquered the Venetians by teaching them to paint with oil paints). He is, in the strict sense of the word, the first Italian master of easel portraiture. He never painted frescoes with hidden portraits or donors in altar paintings. About 10 reliable portraits of him have survived, but he occupies a very important place in the development of easel portraiture of the Early Renaissance.
All his surviving works date from his mature period (Sicily and Venice, 1465-76). He uses one established formula for portrait composition, without changing it in the future, and, moreover, without changing the ideal with which the living model is compared. This was because he relied on a long-established tradition of Dutch portraiture, which he directly applied to the Italian understanding of the image of a person. Most likely, the appearance of easel portraits in his work is directly related to his ardent passion Dutch painting. The birth of the portrait genre in his work also directly coincided with the period of active familiarization with the forms and ideals of the Renaissance. Antonello focuses on the most advanced direction of this period - the work of Jan van Eyck, borrowing composition, technique and color from him. He may have made a trip to the Netherlands.
From Eykov's creativity, he chooses the most laconic and plastic solution to the composition - at the same time, the most emotional. Antonello always paints the model bust-length, with a parapet, always wearing a headdress and looking directly at the viewer. He does not paint hands or depict accessories. Thanks to the parapet in the foreground and the perspective frame, the portrait bust, slightly set back in depth, acquires spatiality. The point of view slightly below gives the image a touch of monumentality. On the “stone” parapet there is always a crumpled piece of paper “attached” with a drop of sealing wax, with the inscription “Antonello Messinets wrote me” and the date. The illusion of three-dimensionality is enhanced by a soft light-air environment. The face is turned towards the light falling from the left; it is subtly modeled by transparent shadows, which gradually thicken towards the edges of the picture and become completely impenetrable in the background. The closest analogy in the Netherlands to his portraits is a portrait of an unknown man in a red turban. Antonello and van Eyck are similar not only in composition, but also in painting, deep and colorful tones, which are obtained with thin transparent layers of oil; X-rays show that their work is identical in technique. But the method of constructing a pictorial form used by Antonello also has its own characteristics. His drawing is deliberately rounded and simplified; unlike the Dutch, he does not study differences, but generalizes. The details are few, the portraits resemble a round sculpture that seems to have been painted - the facial shapes are stereometric.
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