Antonello was born at
Messina
around 1429-1431, to Giovanni de Antonio Mazonus and Garita
(Margherita). He was probably apprenticed in his native city
and in
Palermo.
Around the year 1450, he was at
Naples,
then one of the most active centres of
Renaissance Art.
According to a 1524 letter, while there he was a pupil of
the
painter
Niccolò Colantonio.
Around 1455 he painted the so-called
Sibiu Crucifixion
which was inspired by the Flemish Calvaries and is housed in
the Muzeul de Artà in
Bucharest.
Painted the same year is the
Crucifixion
in the Royal Museum of
Antwerp:
his early works shows a marked Flemish influence, but it is
not clear whence this inspiration came. According to his
biographer
Vasari,
he saw at Naples an
oil painting
by
Jan Van Eyck
(the "Lomellini Tryptych") belonging to King
Alphonso of Aragon,
and, being struck by the peculiarity and value of the new
method, set out for
The Netherlands
to acquire a knowledge of the process from Van Eyck's
disciples. However, the story of the Dutch travel is largely
rejected by contemporary scholars.
Two years later Antonello received his
first commission as an independent artist, a banner for the
Confraternita di San Michele dei Gerbini in
Reggio Calabria.
At this date, he was already married and his son
Jacobello
was already born.
In 1460, his father is mentioned
leasing a
brigatine
to bring back Antonello and his family from
Amaltea,
a town in
Calabria.
In that year, Antonello painted the so-called
Salting Madonna,
in which standard iconography and Flemish style are backed
by a greater attention to the volumetric proportions of the
figures, probably coming from his knowledge of some works by
Piero della Francesca.
Also from around 1460 are the two small panels depicting
Abraham Served by the Angels
and St. Jerome Penitent
now in the
Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia
in
Reggio Calabria.
In 1461 his younger brother Giordano entered Antonello's
workshop, signing a three-years contract. In that year,he
painted a
Madonna with Child for the Messinese nobleman
Giovanni Mirulla, now lost.
Between 1465-1470, Antonello finished
a
Portrait of a Man,
now at
Cefalù.
His portraits are noteworthy for his characteristic use of
the three-quarter view, typical of the
Flemish School
whereas almost all Italian painters adopted the medal
profile pose. Antonello travelled to
Venice
around 1470, to see
Giovanni Bellini's
paintings.
In this year he executed his first
signed and dated work, the
Salvator Mundi.
Back at Sicily, Antonello finished the St. Gregory's
Polyptych.
In 1474, he painted the
Annunciation, now in
Syracuse, Italy,
and the
St. Jerome in His Study,
one of his most famous paintings. The following year, he
began his regular sojourn to
Venice
where he remained until the fall of 1476. Influenced by Piero della Francesca and Bellini,
his works of this
period begin to show a greater attention to the human
figure, regarding both anatomy and expressivity, .
His most famous pictures dating from
this period include the Condottiero (Louvre), the
San Cassiano Altarpiece
and the St. Sebastian.
Antonello returned
briefly in Sicily in 1476 where he painted the famous
Virgin Annunciate,
now in the
Palazzo Abatellis
at
Palermo.
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.
Style and Legacy
Antonello's style is
remarkable for its union, not always successful, of Italian
simplicity with
Flemish
love of detail. He exercised an important influence on
Italian painting, not only by the introduction of the
Flemish invention, but also by the transmission of Flemish
tendencies. However, no school of painting formed after his
death with the exception of the Sicilian
Marco Costanzo.
