Venetian School Artist, St. Anthony Preaching to the Confreres, 17th Century, Oil on Canvas

Oil on canvas. Seventeenth-century Venetian school.In the painting is St. Anthony of Padua (1195- 1226) preaching to his brethren, assisted from heaven by St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Order.The saint is standing on a pulpit, holding the white lily, his iconographic symbol; in front of him listen to the brethren, in different attitudes of recollection. It was St. Francis himself who entrusted him, while still very young, with the task of preaching, against heresies, and teaching the brethren, a task that led him to found the Franciscan theological school in 1223 and 1225. The painting, dark in the colors of the Franciscan sai and in the background, finds light from the glimpse of the heavens on the upper right, from which St. Francis faces, and the pulpit on which St. Anthony stands.The two great saints are placed at the same height, celebrating their spiritual stature and equal value as leaders of the brethren, placed instead on a lower level in a humble attitude of listening.The painting shows signs of restoration and retouching. On the back is an old statement of attribution to Palma the Younger.