|
|
Article: Antonello da Messina at the Met.(Art)(The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- February 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Looking up Antonello da Messina in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, you learn that he was "a person of good and lively intelligence, of great sagacity, and skilled in his profession," and that, after having studied for many years in Rome, he worked for a considerable time in Palermo, before returning to "his native place, Messina." Most important, when Antonello saw a painting by "Johann of Bruges"--Jan van Eyck--in Naples, "painted in oil in such a manner that it could be washed, endure any shock, and was in every way perfect," he was "so strongly impressed by the liveliness of the colors and by the beauty and harmony of ...