Antonello da Messina

Born in Messina, Sicily, around 1425-1430, Antonello da Messina was a pivotal figure in the Italian Early Renaissance. He began his artistic journey under his father, a sculptor, and later apprenticed with Niccolò Colantonio in Naples. It was in Naples that Antonello encountered the fashionable Netherlandish painting style, particularly works by masters like Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck, which belonged to Colantonio's patron, Alfonso V of Aragon. This exposure to N…