Art Institute of Chicago

Saint Anthony Abbot

Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro; Italian, c. 1395/1400–1455)

Date

1440–41

Medium

Tempera on panel

Culture

Italy

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This panel painting represents Saint Anthony Abbot, a fourth-century Egyptian hermit considered the founder of Christian monasticism. It was part of a major altarpiece commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici for the high altar of the church of San Marco in Florence, a Dominican convent where the artist himself resided after he became a friar. Before the altarpiece was dismantled by the early 19th century, the central image was a large panel representing the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus with saints; below this a horizontal predella featured episodes from the lives of the Medici family’s patron saints, Cosmas (Cosimo’s namesake) and Damian. At each side were upright registers with 10 panels depicting individual saints standing on clouds, including this painting.

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