Saint Anthony Abbot

Abstract

This glazed terracotta relief of Saint Anthony Abbot, by Andrea della Robbia, is found in the Chiesa Maggiore of La Verna. The sculpture is on the right side of the arch around the high altar, and therefore would have complemented Andrea's large altarpiece of the Ascension when the latter sculpture was in its original location above the high altar. Marquand reported that both this relief and its partner image, Saint Francis, were once in the Brizi Chapel, but his assertion has been contested by Domestici and Miller. It is unclear how the figures would have fit into the restricted space of the Brizi chapel, and they function better spatially in their current locations, where they would have served as saintly witnesses to the image of the Ascension. Like Francis, Saint Anthony Abbot lived an austere life and renounced worldly temptations. An early Christian, he is regarded as the father of monasticism. Here, Andrea shows the saint with his attributes of the pig and a T-shaped crutch. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.