Saint Anthony Abbot (c.251-356)

Italian (Venetian) School . Oil painting on panel, Saint Anthony Abbot (c.251-356) by Italian (Venetian) School, 1st half of 16th century. Small, whole-length figure, turned to the left, in a white, sleeved tunic and brown mantle, with a cowl over his head and extending down over his shoulders, holding an open book in his right hand and a staff and a bell in his left, and a pig bottom left. Its companion, or pendant, depicts Saint Sebastian as was also once attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. Saint Antony Abbot (so-called to distinguish him from Saint Anthony of Padua) was born c. 251 at Coma (Qeman) and died on Mount Kolzim – both in Egypt – in 356. Revered (with slight exaggeration) as the founder of monasticism, his feast day is 17 January. He was patron saint of basketmakers, and invoked by sufferers of the disease ‘St Antony’s fire’ (erysipelas). He began in the classic way of a ‘desert father’ by retiring into the desert in Lower Egypt as a hermit, but attracted so many followers that he eventually persuaded them to live under a common rule, though not yet as a laura, or community. His life was written by St Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, with whom he had combated the Arian heresy. It was filled with stories of his temptations by the devil, which proved a fertile source for artists. His usual attributes are a tame pig (whom he freed from diabolic possession), a tau – or T-shaped – staff or cross (a symbol of immortality in Ancient Egypt), and a bell (traditionally used to drive off demons). Ham House, Surrey (Accredited Museum)