Saint Gregor

This Saint Gregory at the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo represents Antonello da Messina's contribution to Sicilian artistic heritage — the island's most celebrated painter returning his work to the region that formed him. Palermo's Palazzo Abatellis, one of Sicily's finest examples of Catalan Gothic architecture, was converted into a regional gallery specifically to house Sicilian and southern Italian art, making it the natural institutional home for Antonello's work within his native region. Saint Gregory the Great, the pope who sent Augustine to convert England and who codified the Gregorian chant, was one of the Doctors of the Church whose attributes — papal tiara, triple cross, and the white dove of inspiration — Antonello rendered with precise descriptive attention.

The saint is rendered with the precise, luminous technique that Antonello developed through his study of Netherlandish painting, the oil glazes creating rich, saturated color and convincing material textures.