Saint Anthony Abbot
Fra Angelico
1440–41
Medium
Tempera on panel
Dimensions
39.4 × 14 cm (15 1/2 × 5 1/2 in.)
Classification
tempera
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
129756
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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; be...