Sicilian Renaissance

The Sicilian Renaissance forms part of the wider currents of scholarly and artistic development known as the Italian Renaissance. Spreading from the movement's main centres in Florence, Rome and Naples, when Renaissance Classicism reached Sicily it fused with influences from local late medieval and International Gothic art and Flemish painting to form a distinctive hybrid. The 1460s is usually identified as the start of the development of this distinctive Renaissance on the island, marked by the presence of Antonello da Messina, Francesco Laurana and Domenico Gagini, all three of whom influenced each other, sometimes basing their studios in the same city at the same time.

The Flemish influence was particularly strong in Messina due to its trade links with the Hanseatic League and the resulting influx of Flemish artists to Sicily in both the Renaissance and Baroque eras.^[1] In the 15th and 16th centuries the Kingdom of Sicily was initially part of the dynastic confederation headed by the Crown of Aragon and later part of the Spanish Empire under Charles V and his successors, further linking it to artistic developments in the Low Countries, Germany and Spain.