Crucifixion (Antonello da Messina)
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| Crucifixion |
| Antonello da Messina, 1454-1455 |
| Oil on wood |
| 52.5 × 42.5 cm |
| Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp |
The Crucifixion is the subject of three different paintings by the Italian Renaissance master Antonello da Messina; the first two were completed around 1454/1455, the third in 1475. They are housed in the Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu (Romania), the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp, Belgium and in the National Gallery, London respectively.
[edit] Sibiu Crucifixion
This early work clearly shows the Flemish school's influence on the Italian artist. For a long time it was in fact attributed to an unknown 14th century German painter. A symbolic view of Messina is depicted in the background, probably an allusion to Jerusalem as requested by the unknown client, in a typical fashion of the time.
[edit] Antwerp Crucifixion
The painting represents Christ crucified between two evil-doers, with Mary and John the Evangelist seated on the ground. The work shows a landscape typical of the Flemish school in the lower part; the well devised spatial disposition of the crosses in the upper half demonstrates a full knowledge of the innovative method of perspective known to Italian art of the period. The Italian scholar Roberto Longhi asserted that the upper part was added several years later.
[edit] London Crucifixion
Belonging to a later phase, this work is one of the few paintings signed and dated by Antonello: "1475/antonellus messaneus/me pinxit". The geometrical composition is divided in two parts by the cross and the lake in the background, with the Virgin on the left and St. John on the right.
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