Madrid school; second third of the 17th century.
"The Apparition of the Infant Jesus to Saint Anthony of Padua".
Oil on canvas glued to tablex.
It conserves a frame adapted from old 17th century mouldings.
Measurements: 122 x 101 cm; 145 x 124 cm (frame).
Oil on canvas of devotional character, representing Saint Anthony of Padua and the Child Jesus. In front of the saint, kneeling and dressed with habit, we see the Child Jesus standing on the sacred scriptures that are arranged on the table. Despite the presence of the furniture, the background is determined by a break of glory populated by clouds, which indicates the union and harmony between the heavenly and the earthly. The position of the two figures is typically baroque: the saint opens his hands in a sign of acceptance, while humbly bowing his face and gazing at the Child. The Child, on the other hand, is in the opposite position, with a typically Baroque ascending, rotating movement, which is contrasted by the head bent downwards to look at the saint. Saint Anthony of Padua is, after Saint 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 at the convent of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, he entered the Order of Friars Minor in 1220, where he changed his Christian name from Fernando to Antonio. After teaching theology in Bologna, he travelled through southern and central France, preaching in Arles, Montpellier, Puy, Limoges and Bourges. In 1227 he took part in the general chapter at Assisi. In 1230 he was involved in the transfer of the remains of St. Francis. He preached in Padua and died there at the age of 36 in 1231. He was canonised 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 onwards, 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. He is depicted as a beardless young man with a broad 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 borrowed from his panegyrist Bernardine of Siena. Saint Anthony is often depicted with the Infant Jesus, alluding to an apparition he had in his cell. It became the most popular attribute of this saint from the 16th century onwards, and was particularly popular in the Baroque art of the Counter-Reformation.
The technical characteristics of the piece are largely reminiscent of the aesthetics of the artist Antonio de Pereda y Salgado (Valladolid, 1611-Madrid, 1678), who belonged to a family of artists. His father, mother and two brothers were painters. He was educated in Madrid by Pedro de las Cuevas and was under the protection of the influential Giovanni Battista Crescenzi. In addition to still lifes and religious paintings, Pereda was known for his historical paintings such as the Relief of Genoa (1635), which depicts a historical event of the 1620s. This was painted for the Salón de Reinos in the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid as part of the same series as Velázquez's Surrender of Breda. After Crescenzi's death in 1635, Pereda was expelled from court and began to receive commissions from religious institutions.