Saint Anthony in polychromed and gilt limewood - Swabia, early 16th century

This charming limewood statuette represents the very popular Saint Anthony, dressed in the hooded robe of the Antonine hospital order. Popularized by the Golden Legend of Jacques de Voragine, this 3rd century Egyptian hermit withdrew to the desert to live his faith in poverty and chastity. After having resisted the assaults of the Devil and triumphed in the manner of Christ, he taught disciples the rest of his life to visit him to listen to him preach and join to his prayers. On his death, his relics were first transferred to Constantinople before joining towards the mid- 11th century an abbey of Dauphiné which became famous under the name of Saint-Antoine-en-Viennois. It is near this place that the community of Antonins was organized in a hospitable religious order under Pope Boniface VIII in 1289 and specialized in hospitality made to patients suffering from contagious diseases (plague, leprosy, "burning sickness" etc.).
Here, our saint is represented elderly, according to the iconographic tradition. He carries in his left hand a book alluding to the Antonite rule and was to hold in the right a Tau or a bell, two of its usual attributes as illustrated by a print dated 1460-1470, kept at the University Library of Salzburg. At his feet appears a pig, privileged attribute of the saint. The latter would allude both to the evil wild boar that Antoine would have domesticated and who would later become his most faithful companion, but also to the pigs of his order who were the only ones able to circulate freely in the streets carrying bells. We find this animal at the foot of the saint on a German relief from the beginning of the 16th century acquired by the Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame de Strasbourg at the Galerie Sismann in 2014.

From a stylistic point of view, our work is to be comparable to the Swabian productions of the first
half of the 16th century and more particularly to a very beautiful Saint James of the Landesmuseum of Zürich. This sculpture from a church in the county of Aargau, between Bern and Zürich, presents a similar treatment of the drapes of the saint’s cloak, but also of the beard and wavy locks chiseled into hooks. In addition, this Saint James shares the same physiognomy as our Saint Anthony, marked by a face with an elongated oval. Hollowed out on the reverse, our sculpture was once to adorn the shutters of an altarpiece, accompanying other saints.