1430-1479 Italian Antonello da Messina Galleries 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, according to a 1524 letter of the Neapolitan humanist Pietro Summonte,[1] he was a pupil of the painter Niccol?? Colantonio at Naples, then one of the most active centres of Renaissance arts. Around 1455 he painted the so-called Sibiu Crucifixion, which was inspired by the Flemish Calvaries and is housed in the Muzeul de Art?? in Bucharest. Of the same years is the Crucifixion in the Royal Museum of Antwerp: his early works shows a marked Flemish influence, which it is now understood he derived from his master Colantonio and from works by Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck that belonged to Colantonio's patron, Alfonso V of Aragon; his biographer Vasari remarked that Antonello saw at Naples an oil painting by Jan Van Eyck (the "Lomellini Tryptych") belonging to King Alphonso of Aragon; Vasari's further narrative, that being struck by the new method, set out for The Netherlands to acquire a knowledge of the process from Van Eyck's disciples is discredited today. 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, their meeting is a tempting answer to both questions. But in fact, neither artist is known for certain to have been in Milan at the time. The following year, Antonello received his first commission as an independent artist, a banner for the Confraternit?? di San Michele dei Gerbini in Reggio Calabria. 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 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 in 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. Of that year is a Madonna with Child for the Messinese nobleman Giovanni Mirulla, now lost. Between 1465-1470, Antonello finished a Portrait of a Man now at Cefal??. 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. The Palermo Annunciation.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, and the St. Jerome in His Study, one of his most famous paintings. The following year he began his regular sojourn in Venice, where he remained until the fall of 1476. His works of this period begin to show a greater attention to the human figure, regarding both anatomy and expressivity, according to the influence of Piero della Francesca and Bellini. His most famous pictures dating from this period include the Condottiero (Louvre, illustration), the San Cassiano Altarpiece and the St. Sebastian (see selected works for details). The San Cassiano Altarpiece was especially influential on Venetian painters, as it was one of the first of the large compositions in the sacra conversazione format which was perfected by Giovanni Bellini (Antonello's surviving work in Vienna is only a fragment of the much larger original). Antonello returned briefly to 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.  Related Paintings of Antonello da Messina :. | Sacra Conversazione | San Cassiano Altarpiece | Portrait of a Man | Madonna with SS Nicholas of Bari,Anastasia | Antonello there measuring, madonna Annunziata |
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HIGHMORE, Joseph
English Painter, 1692-1780 English painter and writer. The son of a coal merchant and the nephew of Thomas Highmore (1660-1720), Serjeant-Painter to the King, he was articled to an attorney on 18 July 1707. Bored with his duties, he attended Kneller's Academy from 1713 and in 1715 abandoned law, setting up as a portrait painter in the City of London. From 1720 he attended the St Martin's Lane Academy, where he was able to study contemporary French styles in art and design, particularly that of Gravelot. He read widely and mastered Brook Taylor's system of perspective (1715). He also attended William Cheselden's anatomy lectures and contributed designs to that author's Anatomy of the Human Body (1722).
SCOREL, Jan van
Dutch Northern Renaissance Painter, 1495-1562 North Netherlandish painter and ecclesiastic. He was one of the first north Netherlandish artists to visit Italy, and his return to Utrecht in 1524 can be regarded as a turning-point in the history of painting in the northern Netherlands. The important role Scorel played in introducing Italian art in the north was recognized even by contemporary writers and was reiterated slightly later by van Mander
Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts
(ca 1630 - after 1683) was a Flemish painter of still life and trompe-l'œil active in the second half of the seventeenth century. Gysbrechts was born in Antwerp, where, according to the RKD, he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1660. He signed his name with "CND". His first known paintings date from 1659 in Antwerp. He painted in 1664 in Regensburg, from 1665-1668 in Hamburg and from 1668 to 1672 at the court in Copenhagen.