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picture pleasing. It is the style of Antonello softened, and, if we may coin a word, Italianized.

However much the Messinese may have been given to the pleasures of the town, he certainly laboured hard, his numerous pictures testifying that he seldom left his easel. Vasari tells us that he taught Domenico Veniziano to paint in oils after the Flemish fashion ;1 and that Castagno, who worked with him and Baldovinetti, in Santa Maria Nuova at Florence, killed Domenico from envy at his possessing the secret of that method. Baldovinetti is also described by Vasari, as well as Pesello, seeking how to make oil medium to replace distemper; but it may well be doubted whether the death of Domenico is not attributable to jealousy in Andrea at his superior talent; and as for Baldovinetti and Pesello, they survived the coming of Roger Van der Weyden to Italy, the first almost half a century, and the second about ten years. We have no trace of paintings produced in oil by Domenico Veniziano, by Andrea dal Castagno, Baldovinetti, or Pesello; but this is probably attributable to the fact, that they preferred the tempera medium, in which they had great practice, to the uncertainties of oil, with which they were not acquainted thoroughly, or of which they had not attained the perfect process.

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1 Vasari, vol. iv. p. 80.

2 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 148, Vite d'Andrea dal Castagno e Domenico Veniziano.

3 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 74, Vita d'Antonello da Messina.

4 Vasari says, that Alesso Baldovinetti died in 1448; but Manni states, that the death of that painter was registered in the records of Florence as on 29th August, 1499.-Note to Vas. Vita d'Alesso Baldovinetti, vol. iv. p. 106.

5 Pesello died in 1457.

Antonello resided in Venice until 1465, when he again returned to Sicily, and had disciples in his native town, the best of whom were his son or nephew, Salvo d'Antonio, Pietro Oliva, Pino da Messina, and Giovanni Borghese.1 His largest compositions and numerous Virgins were executed at this time. It was then he finished a celebrated picture of the Virgin and Saviour in the Carmine of Messina;2 an "Ecce Homo" for the Agliata family, at Palermo, dated 1470;3 and his greatest altarpiece, that of the Immacolata Vergine, in St. Anna, dated 1473, and till lately preserved in the monastery of San Gregorio at Messina.4

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In 1473, Antonello finally abandoned Sicily; and, passing through Palermo, where he stayed some months, came to Venice, where he produced the finest of his portraits. He was likewise employed on a Madonna and Holy Infant with St. Michael for San Cassiano of Venice, which Vasari mentions as held in high repute for "the novelty, the beauty, and fine design" with which the figures were executed, and Sabellico describes as the labour of a man to whom no trick of art could be unknown."

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Meanwhile, the Seignory of Venice heard the name of Antonello; and notwithstanding the efforts of the Duke of Mantua to supplant him in their favour, and replace him by his favourite Francesco di Monsignore of

1 Mem. de' Pittori Messinesi, p. 14.

2 Ibid. quoted from Gallo, Annali Mess. t. i. p. 183.

3 Auria, Il Gagino Redivivo, ut sup., p. 17.

4 Mem. de' Pittori Messinesi, p. 15.

5 Ibid.

6 Vasari, vol. iv. Vita d'Antonello da Messina, p. 80.

7 Ridolfi, p. 48,

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Verona, they entrusted him with an important and honourable commission,—that of painting a part of the ducal palace, restored in 1493. It seems, however, that he never finished that commission. It is not known when he stayed at Milan; but Maurolyco writes, in his chronicle, that he was celebrated in that city. In 1489-90, he spent some time at Treviso, working for Caterina Cornaro, by whose marriage into the house of Lusignan the republic of Venice gained the island of Cyprus. She had been forced by the Council of Ten to abdicate her throne, and she took refuge in Treviso. Her daughter, whose hand was sought in marriage by various parties intriguing against each other, was, at last, espoused by Rambaldo Avogaro of Treviso; and Caterina commissioned Antonello to paint a picture of the Madonna and Holy Infant, which she presented to her daughter as a gift2 on her wedding-day. His presence in Treviso was considered, doubtless, an occasion not to be neglected; and the nobles of that city employed him during 1490 on the frescoes of the tomb of the senator Agostino Onigo.3 He returned to Venice, where he died about 1493, before he had been able to touch the pictures of the ducal palace.1

1 Maurolyco, ut sup., p. 200. "Mediolani quoque fuit percelebris." 2 Ridolfi, Le Maraviglie dell' Arte. Venezia, 1648, p. 48. 3 Ibid. Zanetti, Della pittura Veneziana. Ven. 1771, p. 21. 4 Vasari, p. 80. The author of "Memorie de' Pittori Messinesi" says (p. 19), "In the church of the PP. Reformati, outside Catania, is one of the most exquisite works of one Antonellus. This picture is about four palmi by three in size. It represents, with the greatest sentiment and diligence, a Madonna with the Infant; and at the foot of it are the words, Antonellus Messenius, 1497." The notice of this picture is declared in a note to have been communicated by that great amateur of the fine arts, Dr. D. Carlo Gagliani

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He died of a heart-disease, and was buried with pomp by the artists of the city, who celebrated his name in the following epitaph :—

"D. O. M.

"Antonius pictor, præcipuum Messanæ suæ et Siciliæ totius ornamentum, hac humo contegitur. Non solum suis picturis, in quibus singulare artificium et venustas fuit, sed et quod coloribus oleo miscendis splendorem et perpetuitatem primus Italicæ picturæ contulit, summo semper artificum studio celebratus." 1

Thus the artists of his time celebrated Antonello as the first of those who brought to Italy the improvements in oil-painting which he had learnt from John Van Eyck. The man who most regretted him at his death was Andrea Riccio, a sculptor, well known as the author of several statues in the Church of San Cassiano, of whom Vasari mentions the naked figures of Adam and Eve in the ducal palace. Little credit can be given to the story of an interview said to have taken place between Antonello and Giovanni Bellini, and described by Ridolfi. It is said that Bellini was desirous of discovering Antonello's secret of painting in oil, and that he introduced himself into the house of the Messinese in the garb of a nobleman desirous of having his likeness taken. Antonello,

di Catania. Though the description was circumstantial, it seemed so like an error, that we referred this matter to a friend of Mr. Domenico Gagliani, son of Dr. D. Carlo Gagliani, who wrote to his father, and obtained the following reply:-"The picture of the P. P. Reformati at Catania, lately in the private chapel of the convent, is now in the church, and has the following signature in large letters: 'Antonellus de Saliba Messinensis, 1697.' This Antonello was one of the later members of the family of the great artist who went to Flanders to learn the art of painting in oil." 2 Ibid.

1 Vasari, ut sup., p. 81.

seeing him dressed in the Venetian toga, mistook him for the character which he assumed, and thus betrayed his secret to Bellini.1

Salvo d'Antonio, one of Antonello's pupils, afterwards became a disciple of Leonardo da Vinci.

1 Ridolfi, ut sup., p. 48.

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