Taddeo Crivelli
Saint Anthony Abbot
- (1469), tempera colors, gold leaf, and gold paint on parchment
- Leaf: 3.2 x 4.25 in. (7.9 x 10.8 cm.)
- Getty Museum, Los Angeles
- 383 x 552 (84 KB)
Editor’s Note:
The image of St. Anthony here is from the illuminated manuscript known today as the "Gualenghi-d'Este Hours." As most books of hours, it included a section of Suffrages - short prayers to saints - which contains the majority of the twenty-one full-page miniatures in the manuscript.
Crivelli created this commissioned work in 1469. This tiny, hand-held manuscript was probably a gift to celebrate the marriage of diplomat Andrea Gualengo to Orsina d'Este, a member of Ferrara's ruling family. It became their personal prayer book.
Here St. Anthony and his pig are meant to serve as a devotional model for Andrea and Orsina or other readers of the manuscript. The picture is accompanied by a prayer to the saint on the facing page, which was intended to inspire the reader to pious meditation.