작품 상세

Spanish School. 17th century. “Saint Anthony the Abbot” Carved, polychrome, and gilded wood sculpture. 62,5 x 26 x 14,5 cm.   As art history professor Javier Baladrón explained when cataloguing another Saint Anthony the Abbot for our gallery, 'Saint Anthony the Abbot (251-356) was a Christian monk and founder of the hermit movement, considered the father of Christian monasticism. Legend has it that he suffered a series of diabolical temptations in the desert. This hospitable order, founded in the 11th century, had the function of healing contagious diseases: the sacred fire, or St. Anthony's fire, the plague, and syphilis. Thanks to the large number of establishments opened by this order, the cult of its “founder” spread rapidly during the Middle Ages.' He wears monastic hermit clothing, with the brown habit of the Antonine order he founded (in our case, it is adorned with gold embroidery). He wears a cassock tunic, topped with a hooded cloak, symbolizing the humility of monastic life, along with a cord cincture at the waist (which ours does not have). His head is covered by a simple, rustic cap. He carries a staff, which sometimes ends in a tau, or St. Anthony's cross, a symbol of the afterlife in ancient Egypt, the saint's homeland. From this staff, which he used as a walking stick, hangs a bell, an attribute of hermits, which he used to ward off attacks from demons, who fled in terror when they heard its sound. In his left hand he carries an open book, which he reads attentively, from which the flames of Saint Anthony's fire sometimes emerge. The book refers to the Rule of the Antonites. At the saint's feet is the piglet or wild boar, his most characteristic iconographic element, as well as his inseparable companion, symbolizing his love of nature and referring to the miracle that took place when Saint Anthony the Abbot found a piglet or wild boar that approached him with her blind young. Saint Anthony understood and healed them, From then on, they followed him throughout his life, defending him from any vermin he might encounter as a hermit.