Niccolò Antonio Colantonio (born c. 1420) was a Neapolitan painter,
known mainly for having been trainer to Antonello da Messina. Details of
his life are obscure.
Colantonio flourished in Naples between 1440 and 1470. He was a student of
René d'Anjou. His paintings show the mingling of several cultures, as
Alfonso V of Aragon had brought to Naples artists from Iberia, Burgundy,
Provence, and Flanders. He synthesised his own style from all these
sources and he was one of the first artists in Southern Italy to learn
Flemish oil painting techniques. He may have learnt these techniques from
the Flemish artist Bartélemy d'Eyck—a putative relative of Jan van Eyck—who
seems to have been in Naples around 1440.
His most notable work is St. Francis consigns the Rule to his followers
(dated to 1445). This painting—for the altarpiece of a transept chapel—was
inspired by a late thirteenth century fresco above the door of the Chapter
House of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples, showing the saint giving his Rule
to the Minor Friars and the Poor Clares. The fresco can be seen in the
monastery Museum. The painting hangs in the Museo di Capodimonte (Capodimonte
Gallery) in Naples with other examples of his work.
As well as teaching the Sicilian Antonello da Messina, Colantonio may have
taught the Spaniard Pedro Berruguete.
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It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Italian Renaissance".