Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONELLO da Messina: Virgin Annunciate,Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONELLO da Messina: Virgin Annunciate,Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

 

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONELLO da Messina: Virgin Annunciate,Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

The Virgin Annunciate in the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo

Giacobbe Giusti, Antonello da Messina
Portrait of Man, possibly a self-portrait
Born	Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio c. 1430 Messina, Italy
Died	February 1479 Messina, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Known for	Painting
Movement	Italian Renaissance

Antonello da Messina, properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio, but also called Antonello degli Antoni^[1]and Anglicized as Anthony of Messina (c. 1430 – February 1479), was an Italian painter from Messina, Sicily, active during the Italian Renaissance. His work shows strong influences from Early Netherlandish painting although there is no documentary evidence that he ever travelled beyond Italy.^[2] Giorgio Vasaricredited him with the introduction of oil painting into Italy.^[3] Unusually for a south Italian artist of the Renaissance, his work proved influential on painters in northern Italy, especially in Venice.

Early life and training

Giacobbe Giusti, Antonello da Messina

 

Antonello da Messina – St Jerome in his study

Antonello was born at Messina around 1429–1431, to Garita (Margherita) and Giovanni de Antonio Mazonus.

According to a letter written in 1524 by the Neapolitan humanist Pietro Summonte, in about 1450 he was a pupil of the painter Niccolò Colantonio at Naples,^[4] where Netherlandish painting was then fashionable. This account of his training is accepted by most art historians.^[5]

Early career

Antonello returned to Messina from Naples during the 1450s.^[2] In around 1455 he painted the so-called Sibiu Crucifixion, inspired by Flemish treatments of the subject, which is now in the Muzeul de Artǎ in Bucharest. A Crucifixion in the Royal Museum of Antwerp dates from the same period. These early works shows a marked Flemish influence, which is now understood to be inspired by his master Colantonio and from paintings by Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck that belonged to Colantonio’s patron, Alfonso V of Aragon.

Giacobbe Giusti, Antonello da Messina

Antonello da Messina, Salting Madonna

In his biography of the artist, Giorgio Vasari remarked that Antonello saw an oil painting by Jan Van Eyck (the Lomellini Tryptych) belonging to King Alfonso V of Aragon at Naples. Another theory, supported only by vague documentary evidence, suggests that in 1456 Antonello visited Milan, where he might have met Van Eyck’s most accomplished follower, Petrus Christus. Since Antonello was one of the first Italians to master Eyckian oil painting, and Christus was the first Netherlandish painter to learn Italian linear perspective, such a meeting would be a convenient explanation for the evolution of the styles of both artists. However, neither is known for certain to have been in Milan at the time.

Between the years of 1456 and 1457, Antonello proved himself to be a master painter in Messina. He also shared his home with Paolo di Ciacio, a student from Calabria.^[6] The artist’s earliest documented commission, in 1457, was for a banner for the Confraternità di San Michele dei Gerbini in Reggio Calabria, where he set up a workshop for the production of such banners and devotional images.^[2] At this date, he was already married, and his son Jacobello had been born.

In 1460, his father is mentioned leasing a brigantine to bring back Antonello and his family from Amantea in Calabria. In that year, Antonello painted the so-called Salting Madonna, in which standard iconography and Flemish style are combined with a greater attention in the volumetric proportions of the figures, probably indicating a knowledge of works by Piero della Francesca. Also from around 1460 are 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 Antonello’s younger brother Giordano entered his workshop, signing a three-year contract. In that year Antonello painted a Madonna with Child for the Messinese nobleman Giovanni Mirulla, now lost.

Historians believe that Antonello painted his first portraits in the late 1460s. They follow a Netherlandish model, the subject being shown bust-length, against a dark background, full face or in three-quarter view,^[7] while most previous Italian painters had adopted the medal-style profile pose for individual portraits.^[8] John Pope-Hennessy described him as « the first Italian painter for whom the individual portrait was an art form in its own right ».^[9]

Giacobbe Giusti, ANTONELLO da Messina: Virgin Annunciate,Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

 

The Virgin Annunciate in the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo

Although Antonello is mentioned in many documents between 1460 and 1465, establishing his presence in Messina in those years, a gap in the sources between 1465 and 1471 suggests that he may have spent these years on the mainland.^[8] In 1474, he painted the Annunciation, now in Syracuse, and the St. Jerome in His Studyalso dates from around this time.^[10]

Selected works

• Sibiu Crucifixion (1455) – Muzeul de Artà,Bucharest
• Crucifixion (1455) – Oil on panel 52.5 x 42.5 cm, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp
• Abraham Served by the Angels – Museo della Magna Grecia, Reggio Calabria
• Ecce Homo (c. 1470) – Tempera and oil on panel, 42.5 x 30.5 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
• Ecce Homo (1470) – Tempera and oil on panel, 40 x 33 cm, Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola, Genoa
• St. Jerome Penitent – Various techniques on wood, 40.2 x 30.2 cm, Museo della Magna Grecia, Reggio Calabria
• San Gregorio Polyptych (1473) – Tempera on panel, 194 x 202 cm, Regional Museum,Messina
• Ecce Homo (c. 1473) – Tempera on panel, 19.5 x 14.3 cm, Private collection, New York City
• Portrait of a Man (1474) – Oil on wood, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
• Madonna with Child (Salting Madonna) – Oil on wood, 43.2 x 34.3 cm, National Gallery, London
• Portrait of a Man (1474) – Oil on wood, 32 x 26 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
• Annunciation (1474) – Oil on panel, 180 x 180 cm, Bellomo Palace Regional Gallery,Syracuse
• St. Jerome in His Study (c. 1474) – Oil on wood, 46 x 36,5 cm, National Gallery, London
• Ecce Homo (1475) – Oil on panel, 48.5 x 38 cm, Collegio Alberoni, Piacenza
• Portrait of a Man (Il Condottiere) (1475) – Oil on wood, 35 x 38 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
• Crucifixion (1475) – Wood, 42 x 25,5 cm, National Gallery, London
• Portrait of a Man (c. 1475) – Oil on wood, Galleria Borghese, Rome
• Portrait of a Man (c. 1475) – Oil on panel, 36 x 25 cm, National Gallery, London
• Portrait of a Man (1475–1476) – Oil on panel, 28 x 21 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
• San Cassiano Altarpiece (1475–76) – Oil on panel, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
• The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel (1475–78) – Panel, 74 x 51 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
• Christ at the Column (c. 1475–1479) – Oil on wood, 25,8 x 21 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
• Virgin of the Annunciation -Oil on panel, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
• Portrait of a Man (1476) – Oil on panel, Museo Civico d’Arte Antica, Turin
• Virgin of the Annunciation (c. 1476) – Oil on wood, 45 x 34,5 cm, Museo Nazionale, Palermo
• St. Sebastian (1477–1479) – Oil on canvas transferred from panel, 171 × 85 cm,Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
• Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1478) – Panel, 20.4 x 14.5 cm, Staatliche Museeun, Berlin
• Portrait of an unknown man – Oil on panel, Museo Mandralisca, Cefalu

References

1. Jump up^ Memorie istorico-critiche di Antonello degli Antonj pittore Messinese by Tommaso Puccini, Florence 1809.
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Barbera 2005, p. 13.
3. Jump up^ Barbera 2005, p. 14.
4. Jump up^ The letter to the Venetian Marcantonio Michiel, of 20 March 1524, reporting on the state of art in Naples, and works there by Netherlandish painters, dwells upon Colantonio and his Netherlandish technique, which one sees assimilated in the art of Antonello; it was published by Fausto Niccolini, L’arte napoletana del Rinascimento(Naples) 1925:161-63. It is translated in Carol M. Richardson, Kim Woods, and Michael W. Franklin, Renaissance Art Reconsidered: An Anthology of Primary Sources(2007:193-96).
5. Jump up^ Barbera 2005, p. 15.
6. Jump up^ « Antonello da Messina ». Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
7. ^ Jump up to:^a b Barbera 2005, p. 23.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Barbera 2005, p. 51.
9. Jump up^ Pope-Hennessy 1966, p. 60.
10. Jump up^ Barbera 2005, p. 22.
11. Jump up^ Barbera 2005, p. 29.
12. Jump up^ Chisholm 1911.

Sources

• Barbera, Giocchino (2005). Antonello da Messina, Sicily’s Renaissance Master(exhibition catalogue). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-11648-9 (online).
• Christiansen, Keith. “Antonello da Messina (ca. 1430–1479).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (March 2010)
• Pope-Hennessy, John (1966). The Portrait in the Renaissance. London: Phaidon.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). « Antonello da Messina« . Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 148.

Antonello da Messina.

• Antonello da Messina in the « History of Art »
• Antonello da Messina – Biography and Works
• Best of Sicily Magazine article on Antonello da Messina and the technique of egg tempera / oil media
•  « Antonello da Messina« . Catholic Encyclopedia. 1913.
• Web Gallery of Art
• Guardian article on « Portrait of a Man »
• Petrus Christus: Renaissance master of Bruges, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Antonello da Messina (see index)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonello_da_Messina

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, ANDREA MANTEGNA: L’Adoration des bergers

Giacobbe Giusti, ANDREA MANTEGNA: L’Adoration des bergers

Giacobbe Giusti, ANDREA MANTEGNA: L’Adoration des bergers

L’Adoration des bergers, tempera sur panneau (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Andrea Mantegna est né probablement en 1431^{N 2} dans un petit village, Isola di Carturo (aujourd’hui Isola Mantegna, commune de Piazzola sul Brenta), situé non loin de Padoue, sur les terres de la République de Venise. Gardant des troupeaux², il est le second fils d’un charpentier-menuisier prénommé Biagio, de condition modeste, qui meurt entre 1449 et 1451³.

Avant l’âge de onze ans, confié par ses parents en adoption^{N 3,3}, il entre comme apprenti chez le peintre Francesco Squarcione, qui est à la tête d’un atelier à Padoue, l’un des plus importants de cette région. Ancien tailleur et brodeur, Squarcione se passionne pour l’art ancien et la rhétorique. Il est, à l’image de son compatriote Pétrarque, amateur d’antiquités romaines, et avait amassé une quantité impressionnante d’objets datant de l’Empire romain, voire, grâce aux liens commerciaux entretenus par Venise¹, de la Grande Grèce(statues en marbre, vases, bronzes, bas-reliefs, etc.). Sa collection lui sert de modèle pour ses commandes dans le goût du temps⁵, et on compte jusqu’à 137 élèves l’ayant assisté — dont les ferrarais Cosmè Tura et Francesco del Cossa¹ —, tant son atelier était réputé dans toute l’Italie¹.

Le 23 mai 1445, dans le plus ancien document mentionnant son existence, Andrea Mantegna est appelé « Andrea pictore » : il s’agit du codicille d’un testament liant Squarcione à un notaire de Padoue³. Tommaso Mantegna, le frère aîné d’Andrea, également tailleur, vit dans le quartier de Santa Lucia, non loin de l’atelier². Imprégné par l’humanisme renaissant¹, Squarcione lui enseigne le latin, les auteurs classiques, et lui donne à étudier des fragments de sculpture romaine, et par là, les figures, les volumes, la mise en perspective, comme le souligne Giorgio Vasari en ces termes : « [Mantegna] s’exerçait à partir d’objets en plâtre, copiés de statues antiques, et sur des copies de peintures, qui venaient de différents endroits, et en particulier de la Toscane et de Rome » (Les Vies, III). L’apprenti se passionne alors pour l’antiquité et va rester six ans au service du maître. Il est témoin des travaux de l’artiste florentin Donatello entrepris pour la ville à partir de 1443. La sensibilité au monde classique et le goût des antiquités deviennent l’une des composantes fondamentales de son langage artistique, qu’il a suivi tout au long de sa carrière. Mantegna quitte l’atelier de Squarcione, au moment d’un voyage effectué en compagnie du maître à Venise en 1448 ; les rapports se dégradent entre les deux hommes puisque Andrea attaque Squarcione en justice pour travaux impayés : Mantegna s’affranchit et part gagner sa vie².

Andrea Mantegna (Italian: [anˈdrɛːa manˈteɲɲa]; c. 1431 – September 13, 1506) was an Italianpainter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. His flinty, metallic landscapes and somewhat stony figures give evidence of a fundamentally sculptural approach to painting. He also led a workshop that was the leading producer of prints in Venice before 1500.

Le Metropolitan Museum of Artde New York est l’un des plus grands musées d’art au monde. Ouvert au public depuis le 20 février 1872, il est situé dans l’arrondissementde Manhattan, du côté de Central Park sur la Cinquième avenue et à la hauteur de la 82^e rue. Le musée comprend également un autre bâtiment, « The Cloisters » (les cloîtres), à l’extrémité nord de l’île, dans Fort Tryon Park(quartier de Washington Heights). Cette annexe présente des œuvres d’art médiéval et des reconstitutions de cloîtres européens. Les collections du Met comptent plus de deux millions d’œuvres d’art provenant du monde entier¹ et représentant une gamme d’objets très divers. Les premières pièces furent apportées par les fondateurs puis des dons et des legs de grands collectionneurs ainsi que les diverses politiques d’acquisition menées par les directeurs successifs. Les visiteurs peuvent ainsi admirer des trésors de l’Antiquité, tels que ceux exposés dans ses galeries grecques et chypriotes, en passant par des toiles et des sculptures de tous les grands maîtres européens, jusqu’à une large collection d’art américain. Les collections sont aussi composées d’œuvres égyptiennes, africaines, asiatiques, océaniennes, moyen-orientales, byzantines et islamiques².

Une collection encyclopédique d’instruments de musique du monde entier peut aussi être admirée ainsi qu’une série d’intérieurs, comme une chambre romaine du i^er siècle av. J.-C. ou une pièce dessinée par l’architecte américain Frank Lloyd Wright³. Il faut également mentionner sa collection d’armes et d’armures antiques d’Europe, mais aussi du Japon, des États-Unis et du Moyen-Orient⁴.

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rossetti, William Michael (1911). « Mantegna, Andrea« . In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 602–603.
• Janson, H.W., Janson, Anthony F.History of Art. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 6 edition. January 1, 2005. ISBN 0-13-182895-9
• Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art; J.A. Levinson (ed); National Gallery of Art, 1973, LOC 7379624
• Martineau, Jane (ed.), Suzanne Boorsch (ed.). Andrea Mantegna (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1992) Exhibition Catalog: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Royal Academy of Arts
•  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). « Andrea Mantegna« . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Berger, John and Katya, Lying Down to Sleep. Corraini Edizioni. 2010

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Mantegna

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com