Fra Antonio da Negroponte

Antonio da Negroponte (active in the second half of the 15th century in Venice) was an Italian painter and probably clergyman. It is also the name variants " Antonios o Chalcideus " and " Antonio Falier "; the preferred spelling in the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence is Antonio da Negroponte.

Antonio da Negroponte is perhaps the son of Greek parents. He probably came from the belonging to the Venetian island of Negroponte sphere of influence. He was probably trained in Venice and Padua, where he was probably also partly involved. Exact dates of his life are hardly known. He is probably identical with that Antonio Faliro, which was sued in 1469 by Jacopo Bellini in a money matter. In two further letters from the years 1449 and 1497 a Frate Antonio da Negroponte is also mentioned, which is probably also identical in each case with him.

The only reliable evidence of its existence is a big one with " FRATER ANTONIVS / DE NEGROPON PINXIT " signed altarpiece depicting an " Enthroned Virgin and Child ", which was supplemented by another hand with a lünettenartigen round arch in the 16th century. It is located in the Venetian church of San Francesco della Vigna and it shows the hand of an artist on the cusp of the Gothic to Renaissance, who knew his characters lifelike and represent the background natural. Due to the proximity to the simultaneous work of Bartolomeo Vivarini, the image is now generally dated to the third quarter of the 15th century. Starting from the picture was trying to assign the artists other works, of which only one other " Enthroned Madonna with Child" in Legnano experienced greater recognition in the Oratorio della Discplina.

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