Italy buys Antonello da Messina who changed Ecce Homo forever

Every now and then good news, I leave the text of the article, by Dario Pappalardo:

An Antonello da Messina enters the collections of the Italian State. With destination Naples, Capodimonte Museum, probably. The mouths of the Ministry of Culture still remain sealed. Yet gossip has been circulating for a few days in art history circles. Since, last February 5, a mid-fifteenth century Ecce Homo painted on wood, lot 18, was withdrawn from the Old Masters sale at Sotheby’s in New York. The reason is that, secretly, Rome was playing its game. Which ended with an agreement of around 12 million dollars. The estimate of the work varies between 10 and 15.

The Mic technical-scientific committee composed of Mauro Agnoletti, Daniele Malfitana, Maria Cristina Terzaghi, Tomaso Montanari and Italo Muntoni gave a positive opinion, committing itself to the operation. Gallerist Fabrizio Moretti acted as an intermediary with the painting’s last owner, a Chilean collector, and the American auction house. This prevented a relaunch. Also because, in this case, the risk was that the price would skyrocket. Does 12 million seem like too much? «For Antonello there are few – claims an authoritative source within the world of museums who wishes to remain anonymous – also because this is the last one left on the market. There are around forty authentic works of his all over the world.”

This time, there are few doubts. It is a very different case from the crucifix attributed to Michelangelo which Italy purchased amid controversy in 2008 for 3.25 million euros. The Antonello da Messina in question was first identified by Federico Zeri. «It is a painting to which he was very attached – says Andrea Bacchi, president of the Foundation that bears the critic’s name and which collects the photo library in which this painting is filed – Purchases of this type are very rare». Of course, we are not faced with the pop magnetism of a Caravaggio. «But the success of the Beato Angelico exhibition in Florence makes us understand how the strength of these great names of the Renaissance is renewed every time».

The panel, which can be dated to the early 1460s, measures 19.5 x 14.3 centimeters and is painted on two sides. On the back of the Christ, in fact, there appears a Saint Jerome in the hermitage whose face has almost disappeared. This is because, according to Zeri’s reconstruction, the image, kept in a leather pouch for transport, was an object of private devotion, it was consumed with kisses and rubbing. As Fiorella Sricchia Santoro, the leading expert on Antonello da Messina, also confirmed. It is not an unknown painting, but present in several exhibitions dedicated to the painter from Messina who lived from 1430 to 1479. It was at the Palazzo Reale in Milan in 2019 (number 2 of the catalogue). Before that, in the exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome (2006), at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (2005-2006) and, at the beginning of this century, at the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and at the Museu de Belles Arts in Valencia. Larger plates, but with the same subject, are found in the collections of the Met, Palazzo Spinola in Genoa and the Collegio Alberoni in Piacenza.

This one coming from New York would be the first of the series that changed the iconography of the man of sorrows – the suffering Jesus – transforming the Byzantine icon into a modern subject. Antonello is also considered the Renaissance painter who spread the oil technique, of Flemish origin, in Italy. Documents about him are rare. There is talk of an apprenticeship in Naples: Colantonio, active at the Aragonese court, was his master. This is why the Capodimonte Museum is almost certainly the place where the Ecce Homo will be located. The final word belongs to the minister Alessandro Giuli and the head of the General Directorate of Museums Massimo Osanna. But the Bourbon palace should prevail over the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and the Academy of Venice, the other candidate institutions. In short, the purchase is sensational. Even if the ministry – in other cases less refractory to announcements – has not yet officially expressed its opinion. Not another Caravaggio, the Mic hasn’t managed to buy him yet. Negotiations remain open for the Portrait of Maffeo Barberini, recently rediscovered and on display in Rome last year. But in the meantime, welcome home Antonello.