Literature:
R. Longhi, “Frammento siciliano” in Paragone, 1953, 47, pp. 38-39, ill. 31 (ristampato in R. Longhi, Fatti di Masolino e di Masaccio e altri studi sul Quattrocento. 1910-1967, Firenze, 1975, p. 173, ill. 207)
M.P. Di Dario Guida, in A.A.V.V., Arte in Calabria. Ritrovamenti-restauri-recuperi, Cosenza, 1976, p. …, 62-63;
F. Campagna Cicala, in A.A.V.V., Antonello da Messina, Messina, 1981-1982, p.102, 212.;
F. Sricchia Santoro, Antonello e l’Europa, Milano, 1986, pp. 75, 140-141; A.A.V.V., La pittura in Italia. Il Quattrocento, Milano, 1986, pp. 654-655;
M. Natale, in A.A.V.V., El Rinascimento Mediterraneo: Viajes de artistas e itinerarios de obras entre Italia, Francia y Espana en el Siglo XV, Madrid e Valencia, 2001, p. 396, ill. 59a.br>Luke Syson, Anonello da Messina, in: Burlington Magazine, vol CLXVIII, n. 1241, august 2006, p. 543 n.6br>Luke Syson, Anonello da Messina, in: Burlington Magazine, vol CLXVIII, n. 1241, august 2006, p. 543 n.6
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Remarks:
An attribution of this panel to Jacobello di Antonio da Messina has been proposed for the first time by Roberto Longhi in 1953 and has been confirmed by Maria Pia Di Dario Guida (1976), Francesca Campagna Cicala (1981), Fiorella Sricchia Santoro (1986), Mauro Natale (2001) e Peter Humfrey (2002).
The composition is loosely inspired on an early work by Antonello da Messina, now preserved in Reggio Calabria, Museo Regionale. According to Roberto Longhi (1975 p. 173) there are strong influences from the Veneto, especially from Vicenza. These would find their cause in a voyage made by Jacobello di Antonio together with his father in 1475 – 1476. May influences from the avand garde artistic research in the Veneto in the last quarter of the fifteenth century are found in this work.
Indeed, the very accurate rendering of some details, as the Cardinal’s cloak on the foreground, or the precise order of some stones on the soil, are a result of the study of the micrographic tendency in mature works by Giovanni Bellini. The landscape in the background as some rocks in the foreground do relate instead with works by Bartolomeo Montagna (documented in the Veneto from 1485 onward).
Recently, when the painting was shown in the exhibition of Antonello da Messina in Rome (see litt.), there has been advanced a tentative attribution to Antonello da Saliba.
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