Antonello da Messina, schooled in the Flemish tradition (although, in all likelihood, he never leaves Italy) introduces oil painting to Venice when working there in 1475-76.

His works of this period begin to show a greater attention to the human figure, regarding both anatomy and expressivity, indicating the influence of Piero della Francesca and Giovanni Bellini.

His most famous pictures from this period include the Condottiero (Louvre), the San Cassiano Altarpiece and the St. Sebastian.

The San Cassiano Altarpiece is especially influential on Venetian painters, as it is one of the first of the large compositions in the sacra conversazione format, which is perfected by Giovanni Bellini (Antonello's surviving work in Vienna is only a fragment of a much larger original).

While in Venice he is offered, but does not accept, the opportunity to become the court portrait painter to the Duke of Milan.

His Crucifixion, painted in 1475, displays, like his earlier Salvator Mundi, the influence on Antonello of Netherlandish painting, this time in landscape.