The Sicilian Renaissance from Antonello da Messina to Caravaggio

Sicily is rightly renowned for its ancient, Islamic/Norman, and Baroque art, but the island

kingdom also played a highly significant role in the development of the Renaissance.

Antonello da Messina (1430-79) was born and raised in the Sicilian port of Messina,

where he was the first Italian artist to paint intense portraits and religious images in oils,

a technique he then taught to the Bellini workshop in Venice. Antonello’s hometown and

Palermo both still boast some of the most extraordinary public fountains of the sixteenth