Colantonio was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, who was the outstanding native figure in the art of Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 in the Early Renaissance. Details of his life are obscure, though the Neapolitan Renaissance humanist Pietro Summonte

Pietro Summonte

Pietro Summonte was an Italian Renaissance humanist of Naples, a member of the learned circle of friends in the Ciceronian manner that constituted Pontano's Accademia Pontaniana. Summonte's care in preserving his correspondence on artistic matters with the Venetian Marcantonio Michiel resulted in...

 (1463 – 1526) gave brief details in a letter to the Venetian Marcantonio Michiel

Marcantonio Michiel

Marcantonio Michiel was a Venetian noble from a family prominent in the service of the State who was interested himself in matters of art...

 in 1524. A birth-date of about 1420 is guesswork. Colantonio was active in Naples between about 1440 and 1460 or later. He was perhaps first patronized by René d'Anjou, who ruled in Naples between 1438 and 1442. His last recorded commission is one by Queen Isabella in 1460, unless he is the Colantonio paid for decorating a room in the Castel Capuano

Castel Capuano

Castel Capuano is a castle in Naples, southern Italy. It takes its name from the fact that it was at that point in the city walls where the road led out to the city of Capua...

 in 1487. However Summonte says that he died young.

His paintings show the mingling of several cultures, as Alfonso V of Aragon

Alfonso V of Aragon

Alfonso the Magnanimous KG was the King of Aragon , Valencia , Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica , and Sicily and Count of Barcelona from 1416 and King of Naples from 1442 until his death...

 had brought to Naples artists from Iberia

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

, including the Valencia

Valencia

-In Spain:* Valencia , Spain, capital of the Valencia Autonomous Community* Valencian Community, an autonomous community of Spain**Valencian people, an ethnic group or nationality whose homeland is the Valencian Community...

n Jacomart

Jacomart

Jaime Baço, also spalled Jaume Baco or Jacomart was a Spanish painter from Valencia.Most of his life is scarcely documented. He worked in his native city until 1442, when he was called to Naples by Alfonso V of Aragon. he had a deep influence on the local school, including artists such as...

, Burgundy

Duchy of Burgundy

The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...

, Provence

Provence

Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

, and Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

. He synthesised his own style from all these sources and he was one of the first artists in Southern Italy to learn the techniques of Early Netherlandish painting

Early Netherlandish painting

Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...

. He may have learnt these techniques from the Flemish artist Barthélemy d'Eyck

Barthélemy d'Eyck

Barthélemy d'Eyck, van Eyck or d' Eyck , was an Early Netherlandish artist who worked in France and probably in Burgundy as a painter and manuscript illuminator...

 — a putative relative of Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck was a Flemish painter active in Bruges and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century....

 — who seems to have been in Naples around 1440.

His main surviving works are two large altarpiece

Altarpiece

An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...

s. The first was in oil for San Lorenzo Maggiore

San Lorenzo Maggiore (Naples)

San Lorenzo Maggiore is a church in Naples, Italy. It is located at the precise geographic center of the historic center of the ancient Greek-Roman city, at the intersection of via San Gregorio Armeno and via dei Tribunali...

, probably commissioned about 1445 by Alfonso, which was dispersed in the Napoleonic period. The main panel is Delivery of the Franciscan Rule

Delivery of the Franciscan Rule

Delivery of the Franciscan Rule is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance artist Colantonio, dating from 1445 and housed in the Capodimonte Museum of Naples.-History:...

, whose composition was probably inspired by a late thirteenth century fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

 above the door of the Chapter House

Chapter house

A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room attached to a cathedral or collegiate church in which meetings are held. They can also be found in medieval monasteries....

 there, showing the saint giving his Rule to the Minor Friars and the Poor Clares. The fresco can be seen in the monastery Museum. The Colantonio painting hangs in the Museo di Capodimonte

Museo di Capodimonte

The National Museum of Capodimonte is located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works from other Italian schools of painting, and some important Ancient Roman...

 in Naples, along with Saint Jerome

Jerome

Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...

 in his study, full of Netherlandish detail, which was also part of the altarpiece. This was strongly influenced by a Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck was a Flemish painter active in Bruges and considered one of the best Northern European painters of the 15th century....

 of the same subject, then belonging to King Alfonso and in Naples. Other smaller panels are in various other collections.

The second altarpiece still hangs in the church of San Pietro Martire

San Pietro Martire (Naples)

San Pietro Martire is a church in Naples, Italy. It is located directly across from the principal building of the University of Naples on the main street, Corso Umberto, in the downtown area....

 in Naples, showing the Life of St Vincent Ferrer in eleven scenes, including figures which are portaits of Isabella and other members of the royal family. He is also attributed with a Deposition for San Domenico Maggiore

San Domenico Maggiore

San Domenico Maggiore is a church in Naples, southern Italy, located in the square with the same name. The square is one of the most interesting in Naples and is on the street popularly called "Spaccanapoli" in the historic center of Naples...

.

Outside Naples, he is known mainly for having been the teacher of the Sicilian Antonello da Messina

Antonello da Messina

Antonello da Messina, properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio was an Italian painter from Messina, Sicily, active during the Italian Renaissance...

, as Summonte records, probably some time between 1445 and 1455, who spread elements of his style, and northern oil painting technique, to other parts of Italy. The important Spanish painter Pedro Berruguete

Pedro Berruguete

Pedro Berruguete was a Spanish painter; his art is regarded as a transitional style between gothic and Renaissance. Born in Paredes de Nava, Spain, he went to Italy in 1480 and worked in Federico III da Montefeltro's court in Urbino, where he could see some works by Melozzo da Forlì...

 may also have been a pupil.

There is a small Crucifixion in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 that has been attributed to Colantonio by Roberto Longhi and various other experts (mostly Italian), and by others to Antonello, but is currently attributed to an "Anonymous Valencian Artist" by the museum.