Antonello da Messina

Antonello da Messina was a Sicilian painter who mastered the Netherlandish technique of oil painting and helped bring it to Italy. He was celebrated for his intense small portraits of men set against dark grounds, and for devotional works such as the Virgin Annunciate in Palermo. A visit to Venice in 1475 and 1476, where he painted the San Cassiano Altarpiece, had a lasting effect on Venetian painting. The National Gallery in London has his Saint Jerome in his Study, Christ Crucified and a portrait of a man.