The Innovative Sicilian
Antonello da Messina (circa 1430–1479) was a major Quattrocento artist (Italian Renaissance of the 1400s) and the greatest painter of his era to come from Sicily, Italy. Born Antonello di Giovanni d’Antonio in the small city of Messina, he has long been cited scholastically as the importer of the technique of oil painting to Italy. While this is now known to be an untrue assertion, Antonello was technically brilliant—nearly peerless—in the medium. Especially in realistic portraits, he used oil to depict minute details and subtle color. He brought his subjects to life: Sitters appear as if they are partaking in an unspoken dialogue conveyed by their facial expressions.
The artist’s “Portrait of a Man” at London’s National Gallery is considered a prime example of his lifelike painting. Antonello’s ability to display psychological aspects that offer glimpses of an interior life was innovative in European painting.
Antonello’s artworks reflect cosmopolitan exposure, which was surprising given that his hometown was viewed as a peripheral to Europe. His influences ranged from fellow Italians to Netherlandish artists—oil paint pioneers—along with French, Spanish, and Provençal painters. Antonello spent most of his life in Messina, although there are confirmed visits to Naples and Venice.
It was during his time in Naples, where he may have trained artistically, that scholars believe he was exposed to works by the likes of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. The question of whether he did, in fact, journey to the Netherlands or other countries continues to intrigue art historians, given his glorious distillation of foreign artistic advancements.
One of his most prized paintings is “Saint Jerome in His Study,” remarkable for its harmonious exploration of space and light. Amusingly, a century after it was made, a Venetian art connoisseur declared it must be the work of a Netherlandish artist like van Eyck, dismissing the possibility that it could be from the hand of an Italian.
Luxury and Labors of Lapis Lazuli
Blue pigment has been revered for millennia. It is difficult to find and extract from natural sources, so it became a luxury commodity with connotations of wealth, royalty, and divinity. Ultramarine is a “true blue” pigment derived from the metamorphic rock lapis lazuli. Famous historic deposits are in Afghanistan. Highly labor-intensive to extract the blue from the stone and prepare as a pigment, the resulting substance traveled throughout Asia via the Silk Road.
Today, blue is stereotypically associated with boys and pink with girls. In the Middle Ages, however, the colors had opposite gender connotations. This can be seen in art: Jesus is often depicted in red (a color connected to pink) and Mary wears blue. Byzantine artists were the first to clothe Mary in a blue mantle, though the cheaper pigment from the mineral azurite was used for these icons. Over time, blue took on symbolic meanings of purity, humility, and holiness.
‘Virgin Annunciate’
Antonello’s poignant Virgin is draped in a warmly saturated, voluminous blue fabric. She is a young teenager, perhaps 13 or 14, but poised beyond her years. The Madonna sits in front of a dark and isolated background that communicates a sense of sacredness. The artist’s construction of the composition renders her both realistic and enigmatic. She seems tangible: Her expertly foreshortened hand extends over the open prayer book to the viewer in blessing, but her modest pose and lowered eyes convey a reserve.
This version of the Annunciation, which was a popular theme in Renaissance painting, is unusual in that the archangel Gabriel is not pictured. Instead, the artist has positioned the viewer in his place, deepening the emotional connection between the figures within and outside the picture plane. Amid a long lineage of blue Madonnas, “Virgin Annunciate” maintains a magnetism that compels contemplation.
