Anthony of Padua

Anthony of Padua, at the Museo Correr in Venice, depicts the Franciscan preacher and miracle worker who became one of the most popular saints of the late medieval period, venerated across all of Catholic Europe but with particular intensity in Padua where his basilica stands and where his relics were preserved. Alvise Vivarini's panel at the Correr—the museum devoted to Venetian history and culture—situates this Franciscan saint within the context of a city that maintained close devotional connections to Padua across the lagoon.

Anthony is shown in his Franciscan habit, holding a lily—symbol of purity—and the book that refers to his learning and preaching. Alvise's soft Bellini-influenced flesh modeling gives the saint's face a meditative, inward quality appropriate to a friar associated with prayer, scholarship, and wonder-working.