Jacobello was the son of the legendary Sicilian genius Antonello da Messina,[1] whose magical illusionistic paintings combined a haunting Flemish technique with a moving Italian religious sensibility.[2] Jacobello is first mentioned as the heir to the paternal workshop in his father’s Will of 14 February 1479.[3] At that stage he is described as a ‘master’ and married.

The Bergamo panel is Jacobello’s only signed and dated work, created in the year after his father’s death. The inscription on a little sheet of paper, folded and placed on the parapet, is a moving homage to his father: ‘1480 XIII Ind. Mesis Decebris/Jacobus Anto[ne].lli filius no. humani pictoris me fecit’. Here Jacobello describes himself as ‘the son of a painter who was not human’, by which he means that his father was immortal, a divine creator.[4] Jacobello has chosen to represent the Christ Child’s garment opening to reveal his sexuality and humanity, emphasising the god–man nature of Christ—on another level referencing his own artist father’s dual nature.

With his unique signature Jacobello communicates to posterity the potential difficulties and challenges the son of a famous parent may experience. After 1482 there is no mention of Jacobello in Sicilian documents, which suggests that he may have died, or moved to another part of Italy, perhaps the Veneto, or that he abandoned painting. Some have argued that since Count Giacomo Carrara’s acquisition of this treasure was certainly made in the Veneto this might be construed as evidence that Jacobello had already moved north by 1480.[5] Be that as it may, the Bergamo Madonna and Child is a tour de force in illusionistic perspective, composition and complex foreshortening, based on the paintings of Jacobello’s father from the period Antonello spent in Venice in 1467 when he enjoyed discussions with Giovanni Bellini and Mantegna.[6]

The setting is an airy loggia bounded by columns with a landscape beyond. The Madonna stands holding her Son perched on a velvet cushion on the parapet. The perfect oval of her face is accentuated by the chaplet at her forehead and her dark brown serpentine curls. The Child’s round face with slightly cheeky expression is capped with crinkly red hair. He is richly dressed in gold fabric with a purple sash, the red coral at his neck a protection against illness. The hands demonstrate a subtle series of foreshortened poses: the Madonna’s right hand embraces her Son’s right arm, holding him firmly; the outstretched fingers of her left hand are visible through the transparent crystal bowl she holds steadily while the Child takes two cherries, symbols of Paradise.

Many of these details, the landscape, the folds of cloth, the expressions of the faces, are reminiscent of Antonello’s extraordinary technique. His Will stated that his son Jacobello would inherit the unfinished commissions in his workshop to bring them to completion, and many attributions have been made in their joint names, such as the exquisite expressionist Pietà dated 1475–1478 shortly before Antonello’s death.[7] Despite the many hypotheses, we know little about Jacobello apart from this unique Madonna and Child.

Jaynie Anderson

[1] Antonello da Messina (c.1430–1479).

[2] Keith Christiansen, ‘The exalted art of Antonello da Messina’, Antonello da Messina. Sicily’s Renaissance master, New Haven and London:  Yale University Press, 2005, pp. 13–16.

[3] Mauro Lucco, Antonello da Messina, l’opera completa, Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2006, pp. 362–63.

[4] Giovanni Villa, in I grandi veneti: Da Pisanello a Tiziano, da Tintoretto a Tiepolo. Capolavori dall’Accademia Carrara di Bergamo, Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2010, pp. 54–55.

[5] Francesco Rossi, Giacomo Carrara (1714–1796) e il collezionismo d’arte a Bergamo, Bergamo: Accademia Carrara, 1999, pp. 172–73.

[6] Giovanni Bellini (1433/1436–1516); Andrea Mantegna (1430/1431–1506).

[7] Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. See Giovanni Previtali, ‘Da Antonello da Messina a Jacopo di Antonello. Il “Cristo deposto” del Museo del Prado’, Prospettiva, 1980, vol. 21, pp. 45–56.