Preaching saint

The saint in question is probably Saint Anthony the Abbot, who chose solitary existence and in fact created the fundamental model of monastic life. Born in Egypt in the 3rd century AD, he is the protector of animals and was celebrated for resisting the temptations that the devil intended to distract him from religious meditation. Here, in the surviving part of a larger painting, we can grasp the elements of a bare and rocky landscape behind it. With his head surrounded by a radiant halo, he turns his eyes to a point that we do not see, while his tapered fingers are extended in the act of prayer. Beautiful is the white beard, chiseled with a curvilinear stroke that shows the almost rebellious curls. Certainly it is a splendid work of Italian art, which still echoes the style of Giotto and probably dates to the second part of the fourteenth century, made by the hand of an unknown author of northern-central Italy. Some details vaguely recall some works of Tommaso da Modena. Interesting is the union between the search for realism and precision in the details, which are never ornamental but, on the contrary, are used to make this fragment of the scene its very best. We can see, for example, the thin wrinkles under the eye, which accentuate the consumption of the body and the unshakable dedication of the soul facing God.