1979 – Lire 5.000 Antonello da Messina D.M. 09-03-1979 Unc

Antonello da Messina, nickname of Antonio di Giovanni de Antonio (Messina, 1429 or 1430 – Messina, February 1479), was an Italian painter. He was the main Sicilian painter of the 15th century, he achieved the difficult balance of merging the light, the atmosphere and the attention to detail of Flemish painting with the monumentality and rational spatiality of the Italian school. The portraits of him are famous for vitality and psychological depth.

During his career he showed a constant dynamic ability to incorporate all the artistic stimuli of the cities he visited, offering important independent contributions each time, which often went to enrich the local schools. In fact, especially in Venice he revolutionized local painting, admiring his achievements which were taken up by all the great masters of the lagoon, as a forerunner for that extremely sweet and human "tonal painting" that characterized the Venetian Renaissance. 

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