17th century Italian school

Italian school of the seventeenth century. "St. Anthony of Padua with the Virgin and Child". Gilded bronze. Provenance: Important Spanish private collection. Measurements: 19 (diameter). Small gilded bronze tondo representing St. Anthony of Padua kneeling before the Virgin and Child. Due to the dimensions of the piece, it is probable that it was conceived for private devotion. It is worked with the "schiacciato" technique, a system of modeling in sculptural relief used by the Romans and perfected in the 15th century by Donatello, which consists of proportionally reducing the bulk of the relief according to the depth to be represented. This sculptural technique makes it possible to create a bas-relief with a minimal variation (sometimes referred to as millimeters) with respect to the background. To give the viewer the illusion of depth, the gradual decrease in the depth of the thickness is complemented by the rigorous application of the laws of perspective, which enhances the visual effect. St. Anthony of Padua is, after St. Francis of Assisi, the most popular of the Franciscan saints. He is represented as a beardless young man with a large monastic tonsure, dressed in the brown habit of the Franciscans. One of his most frequent attributes is the book, which identifies him as a sacred writer. Another distinctive iconographic feature is the branch of lily, an element taken from his panegyrist Bernardino de Siena. St. Anthony is usually presented with the Child Jesus, in allusion to an apparition he had in his cell. It became the most popular attribute of this saint from the 16th century onwards, being especially popular in the Baroque art of the Counter-Reformation. He was born in Lisbon in 1195 and only spent the last two years of his life in Padua. After studying at the convent of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, in 1220 he entered the Order of Friars Minor, where he changed his first name, Fernando, to Antonio. After teaching theology in Bologna, he traveled through southern and central France, preaching in Arles, Montpellier, Puy, Limoges and Bourges. In 1227 he participated in the general chapter of Assisi. In 1230 he was in charge of the transfer of the remains of St. Francis. He preached in Padua and died there at the age of 36 in 1231. He was canonized only a year after his death, in 1232. Until the end of the 15th century, the cult of St. Anthony remained located in Padua. From the following century on, he became, at first, the national saint of the Portuguese, who placed the churches they built abroad under his patronage, and then a universal saint.