[98] In the Museo of the Sig. D. Franc. Daniele, are some birds, not inferior to the doves of Furietti.
[99] I adopt this mode because "little has hitherto been published on the Sicilian School," as the Sig. Hackert observes in his Memorie de' Pittori Messinesi. I had not seen that book when I published the former edition of the present work, and I was then desirous that the memoirs of the Sicilian painters should be collected together and given to the public. I rejoice that we have had memoirs presented to us of those of Messina, and that we shall also have those of the Syracusans and others, as the worthy professor gives us reason to hope in the preface to the Memorie before mentioned, which were written by an anonymous writer, and published by Sig. Hackert with his own remarks.
[100] The history of the art in Messina enumerates a series of pictures from the year 1267, of which period is the S. Placido of the cathedral, painted by an Antonio d'Antonio. It is supposed that this is a family of painters, which had the surname of Antonj, and that many pictures in S. Francesco, S. Anna, and elsewhere, are by different Antonj, until we come to Salvatore di Antonio, father of the celebrated Antonello di Messina, and himself a master; and there remains by him a S. Francis in the act of receiving the Stigmata, in the church of his name. Thus the genealogy of this Antonello is carried to the before mentioned Antonio di Antonio, and still further by a writer called il Minacciato (Hack. p. 11), although Antonio never, to my knowledge, subscribed himself degli Antonj, having always on his pictures, which I have seen, inscribed his country, instead of his surname, as Messinensis, Messineus, Messinæ.
[101] The Memorie de' Pittori Messinesi assert, that at Rome he was attracted by the fame of the works of Masaccio, and that he there also designed all the ancient statues. They add, too, that he arrived at such celebrity, that his works are equal to those of the best masters of his time. I imagine it must be meant to allude to those who preceded Pietro Perugino, Francia, Gio. Bellini, and Mantegna; as his works will not bear any comparison with those of the latter masters.
[102] In the first epoch of the Venetian School.
[103] The following inscription, composed at the instance of the Venetian painters, is found in Ridolfi, p. 49. "Antonius pictor, præcipuum Messanæ suæ et totius Siciliæ ornamentum hâc humo contegitur: non solum suis picturis, in quibus singulare artificium et venustas fuit: sed et quod coloribus oleo miscendis splendorem et perpetuitatem primus Italiæ Picturæ contulit, summo semper artificum studio celebratus."
[104] A letter of Summonzio, written on the 20th March, 1524, has been communicated to me by the Sig. Cav. de' Lazara, extracted from the 60th volume of the MSS. collected in Venice by the Sig. Ab. Profess. Daniele Francesconi. It is addressed to M. A. Michele, who had requested from him some information respecting the ancient and modern artists of Naples; and in reference to the present question he thus speaks. "Since that period (the reign of King Ladislaus), we have not had any one of so much talent in the art of painting as our Maestro Colantonio of Naples, who would in all probability have arrived at great eminence, if he had not died young. Owing to the taste of the times, he did not arrive at that perfection of design founded on the antique, which his disciple Antonello da Messina attained; an artist, as I understand, well known amongst you. The style of Colantonio was founded on the Flemish, and the colouring of that country, to which he was so much attached, that he had intended to go thither, but the King Raniero retained him here, satisfied with showing him the practice and mode of such colouring." From this letter, which seems contrary to my argument, I collect sufficient, if I err not, to confirm it. For, 1st, the defence of those writers falls to the ground, who assume that the art of oil colouring was derived from Naples, while we see that Colantonio, by means of the king, received it from Flanders. 2ndly, Van Eyck himself is not here named, but the painters of Flanders generally; which country first awakened, as we have observed, by the example of Italy, had discovered new, and it is true, imperfect and inefficient methods, but still superior to distemper; and who knows if this were not the mode adopted by Colantonio. 3rdly, It is said that he died young, a circumstance which may give credit to the difficulty that he had in communicating the secret: in fact, it is not known that he communicated it even to his son-in-law, much less to a stranger. 4thly, Hence the necessity of Antonello undertaking the journey to Flanders to learn the secret from Van Eyck, who was then in years, and not without difficulty communicated it to him. 5thly, If we believe with Ridolfi that Antonello painted in 1494 in Trevigi, and credit the testimony of Vasari, that he was not then more than forty-nine years of age, how could he be the scholar of Colantonio, who, according to Dominici, died in 1444? It is with diffidence I advance these remarks on a matter on which I have before expressed my doubts, and I have been obliged to leave some points undecided, or decided rather according to the opinions of others than my own.
[105] In the ducal gallery in Florence, is a Deposition from the Cross, wholly in the style of Zingaro: and I know not whether it ought to be ascribed to Polito, who certainly resided in Florence, or to some other painter of the Neapolitan School.
[106] In Messina, towards the close of the fifteenth century, or at the beginning of the sixteenth, some artists flourished who practised their native style, not yet modernised on the Italian model, as Alfonso Franco, a scholar of Jacopello d'Antonio, and a Pietro Oliva, of an uncertain school. Both are praised for their natural manner, the peculiar boast of that age, but in the first we admire a correct design and a lively expression, for which his works have been much sought after by strangers, who have spared only to his native place a Deposition from the Cross, at S. Francesco di Paola, and a Dispute of Christ with the Doctors, at S. Agostino. Still less remains of Antonello Rosaliba, always a graceful painter. This is a Madonna with the Holy Infant, in the village of Postunina.