Spanish school; 18th century.

Spanish School; XVIII century.
"Saint Anthony of Padua".
Oil on canvas.
It has Repainting.
It has frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 84 x 63 cm; 96 x 76 cm (frame).
The present canvas represents St. Anthony of Padua, holding with one of his arms the Child Jesus. The presence of the infant, which alludes to the vision he had in his cell, became the most popular attribute of this Franciscan saint from the 16th century, being especially popular in the Baroque art of the Counter-Reformation. The scene takes place in an ochre-toned interior, where only the sacred scriptures stand out, on which a little Jesus sits. The child and the saint remain oblivious to the viewer's gaze. The tenderness of St. Anthony's attitude, the kindness with which the child's body is conceived and the abandonment of extreme tenebrism, indicate that this is a work of the eighteenth century, a period in which religion opted for gentler themes, abandoning to some extent the exacerbated pathos of previous eras.
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, 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 placed under his patronage the churches they built abroad, and then a universal saint. He was invoked for the rescue of shipwrecked sailors and the liberation of prisoners. The Portuguese sailors invoked him to have good wind in the sails, fixing his image on the mast of the ship.