Antonello da Messina
Antonello da Messina, properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio, but also called Antonello degli Antoni (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.Giorgio Vasari credited him with the introduction of oil-painting into Italy. Unusually for a south Italian artist of the Renaissance, his work proved influential on painters in northern Italy, especially in Venice.
Biography
Early life and training
Antonello was born at Messina around 1429–1431, to Giovanni de Antonio Mazonus and Garita (Margherita).
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, where Netherlandish painting was then fashionable. This account of his training is accepted by most art historians.
