CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/10/2019

All-too human pain in 'Antonello da Messina: Inside Painting'

"Dead Christ Supported by an Angel" (1477–78) is reproduced from Antonello da Messina: Inside Painting, Skira's comprehensive new 340-page monograph on the revered Renaissance painter thought to have brought Van Eyck's Flemish technique to Italy. Featuring 300 color reproductions, this volume is the most substantial English language publication on Antonello currently in print, and filled with detailed scholarship. Antonello "appeals to everyone in a very direct, exclusive manner, without need for cultural mediation," Caterina Cardona and Giovanni C.F. Villa write, noting his sublime ability to convey "the all-too human pain of a crucified Christ whose tears mingle with drops of blood: the unbearable torment of the world, both in the past and in these days. Antonello speaks straight to modernity, passing through time and becoming your contemporary, even if he deals with crucifixions, annunciations and pietà."