Jungfrau mit Kind

Antonello de Saliba's Jungfrau mit Kind (Virgin and Child), painted around 1450 and now in the Regional Museum of Messina, is by a painter who was a nephew of the great Antonello da Messina, the Sicilian master who brought Flemish oil painting technique to Italy and transformed Italian painting through his synthesis of Northern and Southern visual traditions. Antonello de Saliba's work is inevitably measured against his famous uncle's achievement, and this Virgin and Child allows assessment of how the younger artist absorbed and continued the Messinese tradition that Antonello da Messina had established.

Oil on panel, reflecting the oil technique for which Antonello da Messina became famous and which Antonello de Saliba inherited through his family training. The Virgin and Child are rendered with the rich, deep tonality and precise observation of the Flemish-influenced Messinese tradition.