Antonello da Messina

(born c. 1430, Messina, Sicily—died c. Feb. 19, 1479, Messina) Italian painter. Trained in Naples, then a cosmopolitan art centre, he studied the Flemish artists, notably Jan van Eyck. Based on these experiences, when he returned to Venice he introduced oil painting and Flemish pictorial techniques into mid-15th-century Venetian art. His major works were altarpieces and portraits. In Venice he executed the San Cassiano altarpiece, of which three fragments remain. His portrait busts in three-quarter view, combining Flemish detail with Italian grandeur, became fashionable. Antonello's practice of building form with colour rather than line and shade greatly influenced the subsequent development of Venetian painting. See also Venetian school.

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