Antonello da Messina

Antonello da Messina, really Antonio di Giovanni de Antonio (* 1430 in Messina, † 1479 in Messina) was an Italian painter of the mid-15th century decisively contributed to the spread of the then new technique of oil painting in Italy.

Life

Antonio de Antonio was the son of stonemason Giovanni Antonio de Mazonus from Messina and his wife Garita ( Margherita ). His son, Jacobo, called Jacobello d' Antonello was his heritage and also a painter. Antonio was buried in the church of Santa Maria di Gesù Superiore, Messina. Antonio is known by his nickname of Antonello da Messina, after his birthplace.

Antonello was a highly esteemed painter in his lifetime, few biographical details known from today. Relatively safe is a lesson the young Antonello when Neapolitans Niccolò Colantonio. In the realm of fantasy is one already applied by Vasari legend that Antonello da Messina learned his detailed, safe way of painting, with its precise materiality in the Netherlands, the brothers Jan and Hubert van Eyck and after his return from Flanders, there perfected oil painting (ie with to glaze distemper among drew pictures with oil paints ) have brought to Italy. To demonstrate this, was long an early picture, a Christ in the National Gallery, London, which bears the date 1465 and a Flemish character shows. Today, the art historians are largely in agreement that already speak the life data of van Eyck and Antonello against this thesis.

It is assumed that Antonello da Messina has at least seen works by Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyk in Italy itself and developed from intuition quite his own technique of oil painting. A meeting Antonello (under the name Antonello da Sicilia) beginning in 1456 is assumed Petrus Christus in Milan with the Flemings as possible. A recent, controversial thesis asserts an influence by the currently -present Antonello in Naples works of Provencal painter Enguerrand Quarton to school, however, presented itself as Antonello in another artistic expression.

Sure prove the stay Antonello and his family in 1460 in Amantea in Calabria and in 1465 and then again in 1473-74 Messina. 1474 to 1476 he held probably in Venice, initially for the altarpiece of San Cassiano. Thanks to his new painting style he quickly earned a great reputation as a portrait painter and had contact with Giovanni Bellini and Vittore Carpaccio. The fact that even today the study of the exact life data Antonello hardly brings about success, is a consequence of the destruction of the archives in the great earthquake of Messina in 1908. Success Antonello in Venice is reflected in artistic legends, according to which approximately Bellini driven from the envy of colleagues had crept into his workshop. In fact, the majority of surviving works Antonello comes from this short creative period in the lagoon city.

Work

From the Pala di San Cassiano ( 1475 ), the Saints are now only receive ( Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna ), representations of the work have survived only reduces. Without this very large-sized factory, the devotional paintings by Bellini and Titian at the school are hardly think. Other major works are the Annunziata ( 1474 ) in Munich, 1475, a further Annunziata continuously developed in the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia in the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo, an Ecce Homo ( 1473 ) in the Collegio Alberoni in Piacenza, a crucifixion in Antwerp ( Royal Museum of Fine Arts), the condottiere, a male portrait in the Louvre (both from 1475 ), a young man in Berlin ( 1478) and a Saint Sebastian in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie.

Many of the portraits are deposited in the presence and openness with which the show portrayed to the viewer, by the Flemish representation. The dramatic light and shadow modulation in some works already announced an artistic conception, which has been substantially developed later by Caravaggio to the championship.

The Annunziata of Palermo is a special feature in the paintings of the Renaissance dar. The Angel of the Annunciation is not seen in the picture, Mary is shown seated behind a open book. The plot is reflected only in gestures and facial expressions of Mary. According to Robert A. Gahl Jr. ( Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome ), it should be in the book to the Old Testament. The text is indicated by Gahl probably verse 14, chapter 7 of the book of Isaiah, in which the birth of the Savior prophesied by a virgin.

Ecce Homo ( 1473 ), Collegio Alberoni in Piacenza

Annunziata

St Sebastian ( 1476 ), Dresden Art Gallery