The Death of Saint Anthony

This Death of Saint Anthony at the National Gallery of Art, dating to around 1430, is an early work depicting the peaceful death of the Egyptian desert hermit who founded Christian monasticism. Anthony died aged 105 in his desert hermitage, attended by his disciples Macarius and Amalas who prepared his burial—he had instructed them to bury him secretly so his body could not become a relic. Painted when Sano di Pietro was in his mid-twenties and still developing his mature style, this work shows his formation in the Sienese tradition under the influence of Sassetta. The subject's quietness—death as spiritual completion rather than trauma—suited the contemplative register of early Sano's devotional practice.

The deathbed scene is rendered with Sano di Pietro's emerging narrative style, the attendant monks and heavenly visitors arranged with the clarity and decorative refinement that would characterize his mature work.