Antonello da Messina - a biography and paintings by the artist in the genre early Revival - Art Challenge. Antonello da Messina

Antonello da Messina - a biography and paintings by the artist in the genre early Revival - Art Challenge. Antonello da Messina
Antonello da Messina - a biography and paintings by the artist in the genre early Revival - Art Challenge. Antonello da Messina

Antonello da Messina Antonello da Messina

Antonello Da Messina) (about 1430 - 1479), the Italian painter of the Epoch of Early Renaissance. Representative of the Venetian school. Borrowed from the Netherlands artists with oil painting technique. In his works combined the Netherlands carefulness of the letter, the abundance of life details and the depth of the light-saturated color with the monumentality of the plan, the fine transmission of space, light and air. Images of Antonello da Messina are marked by magnificent calmness and classical balance ("St. Sebastian", 1476, art gallery, Dresden). Antonello da Messina made a great contribution to the development of the Renaissance portrait (the so-called self-portrait, about 1473, the National Gallery, London).







Portrait of an old man. 1476. City Museum, Turin






Literature: V. N. Postchenkov, Antonello da Messina and his portraits, M., 1981; Tutta La Pittura di Antonello da Messina. A CURA DI G. VIGNI, (2 ED., MIL., 1957).

(Source: "Popular Art Encyclopedia." Ed. Polevoy VM; M.: Publishing House "Sovetskaya Encyclopedia", 1986.)

Antonello da Messina

Antonello Da Messina) (OK 1430, Messina, Fr. Sicily - 1479, Ibid), Italian Artist of the Early Epoch Revival. Biographical information about it is almost preserved. In 1450, he moved to Naples, where he met works by the Netherlands Masters I. Van Eyck, R. van der der Vaiden and P. Cristus, who were in the collection of the Aragon King Alfons, and was amazed by opportunities oil painting. According to J. Vasari., traveled to the Netherlands to find out the secret of a new, still unknown in Italy techniques; However, this fact is not proven. Who taught Antonello oil painting, remains unspecified yet; But it was Messina that the first of the Italian painters introduced his compatriots with the light-native radiance of oil paints, putting the beginning of a new direction of Western European art.


Antonello was one of the most significant portraits of early revival. He usually wrote his heroes close-up, sickly, on a dark background. They appear in three-hardest reversal, as in portraits of the Netherlands Masters. In the "male portrait" (approx. 1474-75) the smart face of the depicted emissions radiates energy, the viewer feels the tense of the spiritual life of the presented man. Portraits of Antonello attract their camera, approaching the viewer, smooth, as if "non-manual", surface. In the picture "CE Man" (approx. 1473), the artist makes the viewer to feel all the incontinence of MUK Jesus. Nagy Christ, with a rope around the neck and tears on his face, looks closely at us.


The symbolism icon comes to change the desire to convey the reality of the physical and psychological state of the suffering Savior. Picture "St. Ieronim in the cell "on the plan and virtuoso transmission of space is much ahead of your time. The walls of the close cave celi as if miraculously moved away, and the viewer sees the saint reading in the tree office inside a spacious Gothic Temple. The image is framed by arch. The curb in the foreground separates the wonderful space from the viewer's space. Details are transmitted with such an accuracy that can be achieved only by applying a very liquid oil paint brush. This is not by chance: each object carries a hidden symbol (for example, a white towel means purity of thoughts). The novelty of the picture is also in the unprecedented dotol the unity of light and the air. In the picture "St. Sebastian "(1476) Antonelo seems to be competed with artists from Florence in the skill of transfer linear perspectives and nude, heroically beautiful body. The lowline of the horizon gives the Figure of the Saint Monumentality. The viewer looks at him from below, as if while at the foot of the monument. The figure of Sebastian towers over the square, having gotting glad to the sky, where the saint look asked. He appears in the picture at the time of his martyrdom. His body pierce arrows, but the pose of the martyr is calm, and the features of the face are not distorted by the suffering - faith gives the Holy victory over pain and death. The event of the times of early Christianity The artist transfers to the Square of the Italian city of the Renaissance, where the guards and women with children are walking among the lush palaces. So the event of sacred history is approaching modernity, and the surrounding artist reality towards ease of everlasting.



(Source: "Art. Modern illustrated encyclopedia." Ed. Prof. Gorkina A.P.; M.: Rosman; 2007.)


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Antonello da Me Messina is important - mainly mentioning the name of the master in various documents that do not allow reconstructing his creative biography. Sicily's native, he may have studied in Naples, but a significant part of his life spent in his hometown. In 1474-1475, he worked in Venice, where he fulfilled a number of orders. The creative formation of Antonello da Messina proceeded in a much less favorable environment than his contemporaries worked in Central and Northern Italy. Neither in Naples, nevertheless in Sicily had no significant picturesque school. But at the same time, Sicily and South Italy were rich in antiquity monuments, Sicilian churches were decorated with Byzantine mosaics, in Naples in the XIV and XV centuries, prominent sculptors of the Tuscan school were worked and the pictures of the Netherlands masters were known. Finally, here, at the courtyard of the Neapolitan king, Araphono Aragonsky gathered a circle of prominent Italian humanists. The works of Antonello da Messina indicate that he knew the work of the Netherlands masters, who took over the technique of painting with oil paints. His creative heritage is relatively small and relates mainly to the 1470s, although the artist worked a lot in the previous decade. Unfortunately, some of his compositions reached us in very poor condition. But at the same time Antonello da Messina appears as one of the largest masters of early revival. In his work, the northern accents appear clearly, testifying to acquaintance with the works of the Netherlands Masters. He is characteristic of a somewhat unusual for Italian masters. Attention to the world of "small things"; Independent life, he acquires not only the objects of the situation, but even the shadows discarded by them. He loves optical illusions - so, the artist often puts his signature on skillfully written crushed, with curved angles, pieces of paper, allegedly glued to parapets. Finally, after the northern masters, he opens the life of sunlight, sliding, gradually weakening, in the depths of the room, distinctly revealing the form of objects, slightly sparkling on their surface. At the same time, Antonello da Messina looks at the world through the eyes of the Wizard of the Italian Renaissance, seeing clear, intelligent, harmonic start in his motley picture.

To some extent, Antonello da Messina is one of its most remarkable works - a small (46 x 36.5 cm) Composition "Saint Jerome in Power" (London, National Gallery, Ok. 1474). It is full of solemnity and harmonic equilibrium. The huge arched portal framing the extensive space of the church interior, where in the depth portica, the lion flies peacefully, emphasizes the magnificent solemnity of the posiction of St. Jerome, squeezing in its strange, built into the church interior of the cell on the theater scene. At the same time, in this majestic spectacle, which opens, micro- and macromir appears in bizarre unity. The colossal portal turns into a small opening, in the lower part of which the quail and peacock are raised; In tiny windows in the depths of the temple, extensive, filled with silver light landscape panoramas. This is the organic unity of the world, the magnitude of the solemnity of the general decision of the composition and will take partitions complemented by the complex life of light, which, as it may fall from the outside, through the arched opening, illuminating the figure of St. Jerome, and at the same time pours out of the windows in depth, spilling out a sprinkuous flux in the mosaic floor Side oils and flashing the arches of the right nef with the lion walking in it.

Antonello da Messina belongs to Saint Sebastian (approx. 1475, Dresden, Picture Gallery), written during his stay in Venice and who was the left side of the inscaneled altar of the Venice Church of San Juliano. This is one of the harmonious works of Antonello. Italian artists of the XV century usually interpreted the image of Saint Sebastian in a dramatic plan, depicting his martyrdom. Antonello da Messina has a naked body of the young man also pierce the arrows, but in the expression of his beautiful face with their eyes raised to the sky and half-open lips - only a slight hint of suffering. Hero Antonello is calm and beautiful, full of life and appears in full harmony with the world, against the background of which it is depicted - by the depths of the buildings whose walls did the warm sunlight connecting their arches, whose outlines are invas with smooth outlines of the figure saint. The beautiful panorama of the city street, which goes deep away, radiates calm: peacefully sleeping the wanderer, quietly talking the young men from Arcade and walking in the background of the townspeople, look thoughtfully down women, hanging the carpets on the air. These stainless figures, written by light, free smears, are not illustrative by no means, they naturally fit into the harmonic structure of Antonello. Colorful pattern of paintings, built on a combination of blue sky and light, golden tones of a naked body of a young man, buildings, pavement tiles, as if radiates the warmth of sunlight.

The desire for more than in the pictures previously saint Sebastian, the generalization of forms often associate with the familiarity of Antonello with the works of Piero della Frances, which he could see on the road to Venice. Anyway, the style of Antonello da Messina in Venice varies significantly. It becomes more generalized, the shapes are gently round, the outlines acquire latitude and smoothness, images - the completeness of life and calm greatness. Such is the "Madonna with a baby" (1475-1476, Vienna, the Museum of Artist's History) - one of the preserved fragments of the Great Altar, written by the artist for the Venice Church of San Kasyano, abducted in the 18th century from the church and barbaric cuts into pieces. The monumental generalization of the style and the fullness of life is distinguished by a small composition "Madonna Annunziata" (approx. 1475, Palermo, the National Gallery of Sicily), obviously performed in Venice and brought by the artist to their homeland.

A separate chapter in the work of Antonello da Messina is the portrait gallery created by him. As a portraitist, it takes a leading place among Italian artists of the XV century and can only compete with the masters of the Netherlands. With his name, no more than twenty portraits associate, the belonging of some of them his brush remains controversial. Most of these portraits were written in 1475-1476 in Venice, as evidenced by the dates put by the artist on some of them. Composite they are solved equally - these are small (less nature) grace images on a dark background; The face and shoulders of the model are given in a three-hard turn to the right. This type of portrait obviously was borrowed by Antonello da Messina from the Netherlands Masters. Antonello was a born portraitist, able to catch something in the devils of his model something, only approximately transmitted by the verbal description of his portraits, - the default of an unique personality. He appears in a clear, calm face of a young man in a red robe ("Portrait of a young man", 1474, Berlin, state museums) and in the so-called "portrait of trivulcio", 1476, Turin, Museum of Palazzo Madama). Creativity Antonello da Messina, who left a bright mark in the art of Italy XV century, had a great influence on the masters of the Venetian school, in particular on Giovanni Bellini.

Irina Smirnova

In the Epoch of Early Revival represented the South School of Painting. He was a teacher Dzhirolamo Alibrandi, who was called Messin Rafael. To achieve color depth in disreteracted portraits and poetic paintings, applied oil painting technique. In the article we will pay attention to the brief biography of the artist and focus in more detail in his works.

Representative of the new direction

Many information about the vital activity of Antonello da Messina is controversial, dubious or lost. But it is clear that it was he who demonstrated to Venetian artists the light-sound possibilities of oil painting. Thus, the Italian marked the beginning of one of the key areas of Western European art. According to the example of many other artists of that time, Antonello combined the Netherlands tradition of an optically accurate transfer of image details with the picturesque innovations of Italians.

Historians found a record that in 1456 the hero of this article had a student. That is, most likely, the painter was born until 1430. Non-and-and-Finance Coluntonio was the first teacher Antonello da Messina, whose works will be described below. This fact confirms the message J. Vazari. Just at that time, Naples were under the cultural impact of the Pyrenean Peninsula, the Netherlands and France rather than northern Italy and Tuscany. Under the influence of the work of Wang Eyka and his supporters, interest in painting increased with every day. There were rumors that the hero of this article was trained by the technique of oil painting for him.

Portrait Master

At the birth of Antonello da Messina was an Italian, but on art education, he substantially treated the picturesque traditions of Northern Europe. He perfectly painted portraits, which accounted for almost thirty percent of its preserved work. Usually Antonello portrayed the model sulfur and close-up. At the same time, the shoulders and head were placed on a dark background. Sometimes in the foreground, the artist drew a parapet with Kartelino attached to him (a small piece of paper with the inscription). Illusionistic accuracy and graphitime in data transmission details indicate that they have a Dutch origin.

"Male portrait"

This picture, written by Antonello da Messina in 1474-1475. It is one of its best works. The wizard's palette is limited to saturated brown, black and separate browse and white smears. An exception is a red hat, supplemented by a penetrating dark red stripe of a lower dress. The inner world of the drawn model is practically not disclosed. But the face radiates intelligence and energy. Antonello modeled him very thinly. Acute drawing the features of the face in combination with the game of light gives the work of Antonello almost sculptural expressiveness.

"This is a man"

Portraits of the Italian attract a viewer with a glossy, shiny surface and a chamber format. And when these qualities da Messina transfers to religious painting (the picture "This is a person"), the appearance of human suffering becomes terribly painful.

With tears on the face and rope around the neck, Nagy Christ looks closely at the viewer. His figure fills almost the entire field of the canvas. The interpretation of the plot is slightly different from the icon painting theme. Italian sought to mostly convey the psychological and physical image of Christ as much as possible. That is what causes the viewer to focus on the meaning of the suffering of Jesus.

"Maria Annunciat" Antonello da Messina

This work, in contrast to the picture "This is a person", completely different in mood. But from the viewer, it also requires internal experiences and emotional participation. As for the "Mary of Annunciata", Antonello as if putting a viewer in the place of the archangel in space. This gives a sense of mental complicity. Mary's left hand sitting behind Mary's Pürter holds a blue bedpopped on her, and she raises each other. The woman is completely calm and thoughtful, her smoothly illuminated, sculpturally stupid head as if radiates light on a dark painting background.

"Maria Annunziata" is not the only sulfur portrait of a woman written by Antonello da Messina. "Annunciation" is the name of another similar belt of the painter, which shows the same Mary's Virgo, only in a different pose: it holds the blue covered with two hands.

In both, I tried to express the feeling of the spiritual connection of a woman with the highest forces. Her expression of the face, the posture of the arms and the head, as well as the view tells the viewer that Maria is now far from the broken world. And the black background of cloths only emphasizes the deprivation of the Virgin.

"St. Jerome in the cell "

In the above pictures, there are no minimum interest in the problem of transferring the surrounding space. But in other works the painter in this respect was essentially ahead of his time. In the picture "St. Ieronim in the cell "depicted reading the saint's pigert. Its cabinet is located inside the Gothic hall, on the back wall of which windows are cut in two floors. In the foreground, the image is framed by a border and arch. They are perceived as a schochenium (the reception, common in the art of countries in the north of the Alps). The mustard color of the stone emphasizes the contrast of the shade and light inside the room similar to the cave. Details of the painting (landscape away, birds, shelves) were transferred with a very high degree of accuracy. It is possible to achieve such an effect only when applied to oil paint with rather small strokes. But the most important dignity of painting da Messina is still not in reliable transmission of parts, but in the stylistic unity of the air and light.

Monumental altar

In 1475-1476 The artist lived in Venice. There he wrote for the Church of San Cassiano, the majestic altar. Unfortunately, until today, only its central part has been preserved, where Madonna towering on the throne with a baby is depicted. On both sides of it are saints. This altar refers to the type of sacra conversion. That is, the saints are in the same space. And this is the opposite to the form divided into parts of the polyptic. The reconstruction of the monumental altar was easier than Giovanni Bellini.

"Pieta" and "Crucifix"

Antello oil painting, or rather, the ability to transfer illumination with this technique, was very highly appreciated by his colleagues-artists. Since that time, Venetian colorism was based solely on the development of great potential of the new direction. Works yes Messina of the Venetian period have the same conceptual trend as his early work. Strongly embroidered picture "Pieta", even in such a damaged state fills the audience with a stressful sense of compassion. On the lid of the tomb, the dead body of Christ hold three angels with fusey air with pointed wings. The artist depicted a central figure close-up.

It is as if pressed to the surface of the canvas. The empathy of the depicted suffering - that's what, using the above, the reception, sought Antonello da Messina. "Crucifixion" is another painting painter. It is similar to the topics with "Pieta". On the canvase depicted Jesus, crucified on the cross. To the right of him sits Maria, and on the left - the apostle John. Just like "Pieta", the canvas is aimed at calling an empathy from the viewer.

"Saint Sebastian"

This picture is an example of how Antonello competed in the image of the heroic nude and the skill of transferring a linear perspective with its North-Malian colleagues. Against the background of a powerful stone area, the body of the pierced Archers of Holy acquires huge sizes. Aspiring deep into the space, the fragment of the column in the foreground and the prospect of a very low point of the remarks argue that the painter used in the construction of the principles of Euclidean geometry in constructing.

  • Antonello da Messina, the pictures of which were described above, usually portrayed his heroes sickly, close-up and on a dark background.
  • According to J. Vazari, Italian traveled to the Netherlands to find out the secret of the new painting technique. However, this fact is not proven.
  • Until now, it has not been reliably installed who taught the hero of this articles of oil painting. According to rumors, it was Van Eyk.

"Maria Annutsiat" is one of the most famous paintings by the Great Italian painter Antonello da Messina (1429/31 - 1479). The famous painter of early recovery wrote a picture in 1475. Tree, oil.

Dimensions: 45 x 34.5 cm. At the moment is located in the National Museum of Palermo.

"Maria Annutsiat" has characteristic features of painting da Messina. The painters of the Era of early recovery, it is possible to report only, just comprehended the skill of painting.

It was time, at the time when great painters found new forms, invented new style solutions and technicians, became known with their own experiences with painting. The creativity of the painters of restoration directly affected the skill of all subsequent worship of painters and still have an example for beginner artists.

Antonello da Messina is not an exception to the rules.

For the brush of this artist, the portraits of people and paintings on religious topics are particularly characteristic of the realism and depth. In the picture "Maria Annutsiat", and the picture "Annunciation", the painter depicted a sick-sized portrait of the lady.

Here we can notice that Antonello da Messina tries to express inexpressible through symbolic things. Most of the painters depicted the Annunciation just like genre scenes, but Antonello moves away from this practice and expresses a sense of spiritual connection with the highest, as the inner state of Maria Annutsiata.

Her gaze, the head of the hands and head, the expression of the face - everything shows that now Maria is on a large distance from the temporary world.

Maria Annutsiat is on a dark background, as if emphasizing it and its extension and its appearance from the world. But in his own picture, Antonello da Messina was able to allocate the depth of the picture, moving away the ladies figure to the background with the book and assistance of the Magitra, which is in front of Maria.

Picture "Maria Annutsiat" Antonello da Messina

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Antonello da Messina (1429 / 30-1479) (Antonello Da Messina) paintings of great painters

Details Category: Fine Arts and Architecture of the Renaissance (Renaissance) Posted on 14.10.2016 14:16 Views: 1312

Antonello from Messina, an Italian artist of the Epoch of early Renaissance, wrote, of course, not only portraits.

But it is the portrait painting that is the top of his creativity. His portrait art left a deep mark in the Venetian painting of the end of the XVI centuries.

From biography

Antonello da Messina. Self-portrait

The artist was born in the city of Messina (about. Sicily) between 1429 and 1431 graduated from provincial school. Then moved to Naples (approximately 1450), where he began studying Coluntonio. (Niccolo Antonio). Many of the life of Antonello is lost, dubious or controversial. However, it is known that since Coluntonio studied Flemish art, especially the creativity of Jan Van Eyka, then the Dutch traditions of painting found a response and in the works of Antonello da Messina. And in mature works, the alloy of the Italian and Netherlands technician was especially clear.
Coluntonio was the first Italian artist who began to write with oil. The technique of pure oil painting he borrowed from Jan Van Eyk. And then Antonello da Messina began to work in this technique.
In 1475-1476 Yes Messina worked on orders in Venice. There he met many artists and especially made friends with Giovanni Bellini. It is believed that Antonello da Messina written in Venice is the best in his work.

Antonello da Messina "Crucifix" (1475). National Gallery (London)
The gospel plot was transferred by the artist in the Netherlands style and in his own way. As you know, there were 4 people with witnesses of Jesus Christ (not counting the crucified robbers, Roman warriors and the people standing around): His mother Maria, Evangelist John, Maria Magdalene and Maria Cleopova. But Antonello da Messina portrays only the Virgin and John, to whom Jesus hedked to take care of his mother: "Jesus, seeing Mother and a student here standing, who loved, says his mother: WOMEN! CE, your son. Then says the student: here, my mother! And from that time, the student took her to him "(John 19: 26-27).
In the background, the painting is depicted by the hometown of the artist - Messina.

Antonello da Messina "Dead Christ, supported by angel"
On a light background, the hometown of the artist - Messina varies with difficulty, but figures of Christ and Angel are clearly identified. Angel is quietly crying, his eyes darkened, blushed eyelids, two almost invisible tears left wet traces on his face ...

Antonello da Messina "ECCE HOMO" ("CE, Man"). Piacenza, urban museum
"Here is a person," the words of Pontius Pilate about Jesus Christ.
The form of human suffering is unbearably painful. Nagy Christ, with a rope around the neck and tears on his face, looks closely at us. The figure almost completely fills the pattern of the picture; The interpretation of the plot departs from icon painting distraction towards the transfer of the physical and psychological reality of the image of Christ, which makes us focus on the meaning of His suffering.

Portraits of the brush Antonello da Messina

Antonello was an Italian for birth, but in art education he largely belonged to the picturesque tradition of Northern Europe. He was one of the most remarkable portrait of his time. Almost a third of its preserved works are portraits.
The artist's style is distinguished by technical virtuosity and careful working out of parts, as well as the depth of the background. All these characteristics are also peculiar and its portraits, which from 1470 became the main genre of his creativity. Portrait genre of Antonello is marked by the features of the Netherlands: dark neutral background, accurate transfer of facial expressions of the model. The artist is considered a master of a three-fourth grader portrait. In fact, he is the first Italian Mastery of the Machine Portrait. About 10 reliable portraits of his portraits have survived, but in the development of easel portrait painting of the early Renaissance, he occupies a very important place.

Antonello da Messina. "Male portrait (perhaps" self-portrait "). National Gallery (London)
Its portrait compositions are almost unchanged, because He relied on the long-established tradition of the Netherlands portrait: he always writes the model cheerfully, with parapet, always in a headdress and look right on the viewer. He never writes hands and does not depict accessories.
Thanks to the parapet in the foreground and the perspective frame, a portrait bust, a slightly moved to the depth, acquires spatiality, and the point of view is slightly bottom gives the image of the monumentality.
On the "stone" parapet, a crumpled piece of paper, "attached" Drop Surguc, with the inscription "Antonello Messinets wrote me" and the date.
The light in the portrait usually falls on the left, towards the face. Shadows thinly model face.
We have already emphasized the proximity of the portrait genre Antonello to the Netherlands art. So, modern X-ray research methods show that painting technique, deep and colorful tones of Antonello portraits are identical on the technique of the Netherlands painting.
But Antonello method has its own characteristics. His drawing is deliberately rounded and simplified, his portraits are more generalized. And some art historians will even see them like a round painted sculpture, because Face forms have a three-dimensional image.
The earliest portrait of the brush Antonello da Messina is considered the "portrait of an unknown" from Cefal.

Antonello da Messina "Male Portrait" (Cheefalu)
Unlike the Netherlands portraits, the character of this painting is smiling. Antonello became the first artist of the XV century, who discovered the expressiveness of the smile.

"Kondotyer" (1475) - One of the most "Netherlands" portraits of Antonello on the technique of execution and one of the most Italian in spirit.
The name of the customer canvas is unknown.
A courageous young man looks at the viewer. He is not trying to like someone, but looks arrogant and as if he is threatened and contempt. Dark background and dark clothing contrast with a well-lit face - actually, this was the purpose of the artist: to focus the viewer only on the face.
The artist himself did not give title a picture, it was given later by the audience themselves. In this person, the spectators saw Kongotier (head of military units (companies) who were in the service of commune and sovereign cities and consisting of foreigners, i.e. actually - mercenary).
The view of "Condoter" drilling, tense and frozen. The point of view of the artist is a little on top, so the person acquires greater mobility, the eyes are stronger, the shadows create a more pronounced relief.

Antonello da Messina "Portrait of the Old Man" (Turin)
Portrait of the old man is considered a masterpiece of that time. The artist depicted a man with a tint of ironic disregard on the face. This impression is achieved by a strong displacement of the point of view. Thanks to this reception, the features of Portrait Art Antonello are obtained especially pointed: the character's pupils are in a sharp movement; The head is turning, following the rapid look.
Art historians celebrate an emphasized democraticity of the images created by the artist. Antonello da Messina demonstrates their human, personal uniqueness, and not a classic exclusion.
Antonello da Messina died in Venice in 1479. His paintings make up a greater rarity; A significant part of them is kept in the Venice Academy, in the London National Gallery and in Berlin; In Vienna, his "Savior in the Coffin" is located, in Messina - church paintings. His creativity had a significant impact on the development of painting of early rebirth.