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Portrait of a Young Man  1470

by Antonello da Messina

Trained in Naples in the Netherlandish technique of oil painting, Antonello set the standard for portraiture when he came from Sicily to Venice in 1475. Long before Leonardo da Vinci, he introduced the incipient smile as an indication of the inner life of the sitter, enveloping his features in a soft light and engaging the viewer with his direct gaze. In these ways, the pi...
Credit: 
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art