Saint Anthony of Padua

Maso di Banco's Saint Anthony of Padua, painted around 1340 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the work of the most talented and innovative pupil of Giotto, whose small surviving oeuvre has placed him among the most admired painters of the Trecento. The panel likely formed part of a polyptych altarpiece and depicts the beloved Franciscan saint, whose cult was enormously popular across fourteenth-century Italy. Maso's refined interpretation of the Giottesque style, marked by greater spatial sophistication and subtler color harmonies, represented the most progressive current in Florentine painting of the 1340s.

Executed in tempera and gold on panel, the standing saint displays Maso di Banco's characteristically refined version of the Giottesque style, with solidly modeled forms, subtle tonal transitions, and a restrained elegance that surpasses his master's sometimes austere manner. The figure's volumetric presence and the sensitive rendering of the Franciscan habit demonstrate Maso's exceptional control of form and light.