Room
5
This room opens with the Madrid Portrait of a Young Man on a parapet,
in the conventional Flemish style, signed by Antonello. Probably executed
in 1473, it is one of the most involving of the painter’s works because
of the way in which the subject is presented to the viewer in extreme
close-up. The room also contains two remarkable variations on the same
theme, the 1474 Syracuse Annunciation and the 1475 Palermo Virgin
Annunciate. The latter is perhaps the most famous of the Sicilian
painter’s works and is one of the art icons of all time, dating back
to Antonello’s stay in Venice. The former enchants and surprises in
its masterly orchestration of light sources, generating an interplay
of backlight and, at the same time, wholly unifying the composition.
But what is truly innovative is the interpretation of the Virgin Annunciate
from Palermo, in which the painter achieves absolutely modern results,
breaking up the traditional composition of the Annunciation scene. Here,
indeed, Antonello condenses the sacred event into the single figure
of the Virgin and concentrates on the personal and intimist aspect of
the scene, underlining the psychological effects of the event revealed
to the pensive and realistic figure of the Virgin and making the viewer
feel, due to the absence of the angel, that he is the sole witness to
the sacred event.
