Cultural Italy Blog: Art, Coffee & Love

Antonello da Messina: Inside the Painting

ART & EXHIBITIONS

A unique exhibition opens in Milan featuring twenty of the 35 surviving works of Sicilian Master Antonello da Messina. The exhibit, Antonello da Messina: Dentro la pittura curated by Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, gives audiences the opportunity to see works that have been gathered from across the globe.

Widely thought to have influenced other Italian painters in oil painting techniques, Messina’s portraits are considered some of the greatest of the early Renaissance. A result of the collaboration between the governments of Sicily and Milan, MondoMostre Skira and Palazzo Reale, this large collection of Messina’s work has survived many natural disasters and neglectful custodians. To accompany the exhibit are 28 drawings and notebooks on Messina by art historian and critic Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, giving attendees both context and history of the significance of Messina’s work.

The Palazzo Reale is a place and piece of history itself. Ranging from a place of Renaissance courts to theatre, the architecture has been influenced by the many inhabitants. Once partially destroyed by war it recently went through a twenty-year restoration project.  The exhibit opened 21 February and runs to 2 June 2019. For tickets to add this to your Italy #Bucketlist Trip, contact Cultural Italy.

Jennie Olson Six
Cultural Italy Staff Writer