Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; 17th century.
"The vision of St. Anthony".
Oil on canvas.
Presents restorations.
It has frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 54 x 37,5 cm; 61 x 45 cm (frame).
In this scene we see Saint Anthony kneeling in an exterior of architecture with a clear classicist influence. The saint is dressed with a nimbus, brown habit, an open book, a cross and white flowers that are usual in his iconography. In front of him is the vision of the Nile in a profuse break of glory. The Child has a red tunic in allusion to the Passion of Christ. The whole heavenly area stands out for its aesthetic theatricality, not only defined by the gilding but also by the great profusion of angels that make up the procession of the Child Jesus, adding grandiloquence to the scene.
St. Anthony of Padua is, after St. Francis of Assisi, the most popular of the Franciscan saints. He was born in Lisbon in 1195 and only spent the last two years of his life in Padua. After studying in 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 he became, at first, the national saint of the Portuguese, who put under his patronage the churches they built abroad, and then a universal saint. 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.