tifs derived from van Eyck and Rogier van der WEYDEN. It
is plausible that this picture was executed during an un-
documented visit to Venice (c. 1465–70), for Antonello’s
St. Gregory polyptych (Messina; 1473) and Fathers of the
Church altarpiece (Palermo) indicate a knowledge of both
the figure style of PIERO DELLA FRANCESCAand the altar-
pieces of Giovanni BELLINI. His Syracuse Annunciation
(1474) revolutionalizes a typical Netherlandish interior by
the addition of a monumental figures and architectural
motifs derived from Piero and the rigorous application of
one-point perspective.
In 1475–76 Antonello was in Venice, where he
painted the now fragmentary San Cassiano alterpiece (Vi-
enna), partly modeled on Giovanni Bellini’s lost altarpiece
at the Venetian church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. In its turn,
it was influential upon Venetian altarpieces to the end of
the 15th century. Antonello’s last major work, the Dresden
St. Sebastian, was also painted in Venice. In addition to reli-
gious works, Antonello painted a number of portraits
which forcefully reinterpret a format initiated by Jan van
Eyck.
By far the most significant south Italian painter of the
15th century, Antonello’s importance is far from merely
local. He was the first Italian artist to be thoroughly con-
versant with the Netherlandish glazed oil technique and
was a major influence upon the course of Venetian Re-
naissance painting.
Antoniazzo Romano (c. 1460–1508) Italian painter
Trained under the Umbrian followers of Fra ANGELICO
and Benozzo GOZZOLI, Antoniazzo was also influenced
by MELOZZO DA FORLÌ, PERUGINO, BOTTICELLI, and
GHIRLANDAIO. He executed numerous frescoes in Rome
and elsewhere and paintings by him of Madonnas and
other religious subjects survive in several northern Italian
galleries. During the second half of the 15th century he
was the most significant painter working in Rome.
Antonino, St. (Antonio Pierozzi) (1389–1459) Italian
theologian, historian, and economist
Inspired by the preaching of John Dominici, Antonino
joined the Dominican Order in 1405 at Cortona. From an
early age he was greatly troubled by corruption in Church
and society, and much of his life was spent in fighting this
corruption. He became prior of the Dominican house in
Fiesole in 1425. In 1436 or 1437, with the aid of Cosimo
de’ MEDICI, he established the convent of San Marco in his
native Florence. Between 1439 and 1445 he attended the
Council of Florence (see FLORENCE, COUNCIL OF) and se-
cured the lasting respect of the papacy. He received the
archbishopric of Florence in 1446 but continued to live as
a humble friar, spending what he could of the see’s rev-
enues on the poor. At the same time he appreciated the
value of trade in relation to ecclesiastical wealth and was
influential in lessening the Church’s medieval distrust of
commerce. Antonino was canonized in 1523, and his
works continued to be widely published throughout the
16th century.Antwerp A Netherlands (now Belgian) city and port on
the River Scheldt, 55 miles from the North Sea. Antwerp
was a Gallo-Roman foundation (about 200 CE), which was
ruled by Franks or Frisians after the fall of Rome. By the
early 14th century it was ruled by the dukes of Brabant
and known for its flourishing trade with England, Venice,
and Genoa and for its trade fairs. Antwerp’s population
grew rapidly from 20,000 in 1400 to 100,000 in 1550,
overtaking Bruges as the leading mercantile center in the
Netherlands. In the first half of the 16th century Antwerp
received its first cargo of pepper from Lisbon (1501) and
became a center for the spice trade; Antwerp at first pros-
pered under HAPSBURGrule (from 1477), pioneering the
extension of credit and making the first public loan to the
Netherlands government (1511). The Antwerp stock ex-
change is one of the oldest in Europe (established 1531).
Later in the 16th century Antwerp’s prosperity was
destroyed by religious and political disputes. As an im-
portant Calvinist center by 1560, Antwerp suffered se-
verely during the revolt of the NETHERLANDS; a savage
Spanish attack, the “Spanish fury” (1576), destroyed
about a third of the town and killed about 7000 citizens.
Later (1583), in the “French fury”, the town was attacked
by French troops under FRANCIS, DUKE OF ALENÇON. After
Spain recaptured Antwerp (1585) its power and wealth
declined, crippled by the war and the closure of the River
Scheldt to trade. During the Renaissance Antwerp was an
important center for arts and scholarship with its own
school of painting in the late 15th century and numerous
printing presses after the arrival of PLANTIN(1548). It was
also a center for humanist scholarship. Antwerp’s most
notable building from the Renaissance period is the town
hall (1561–66).Antwerp Polyglot Bible See ARIAS(Y) MONTANO, BEN-
ITO; HEBREW STUDIES; PLANTIN PRESSAphrodite See VENUSApian, Peter (Peter Bienewitz) (1495–1552) German
astronomer, mathematician, and geographer
Educated at the universities of Leipzig and Vienna, Apian
was later appointed to the chair of mathematics at Ingol-
stadt university. He established his reputation with the
issue of a world map in 1520, and the subsequent publi-
cation of his Cosmographia (1524), a work of geography.
He later published an arithmetical textbook, Rechnung
(1527), which contained the first printed account of Pas-
cal’s triangle. In astronomy Apian’s most important work
was his Astronomicum caesareum (1540), containing a de-
tailed description of five comets, one of which was theAAppiiaann,, PPeetteerr 2233