St Anthony of Padua with a Nun

ca. 1500

This is the left wing of a dismantled altarpiece, the rest of which remains unidentified. A tonsured St Anthony of Padua is shown in Franciscan habit with his attribute, the Infant Jesus seated on a book, referring to his vision of the Infant Christ when preaching on the Incarnation (the belief that Christ became man). He presents a kneeling nun, possibly from the female branch of the Franciscan order known as the Poor Clares, to the Holy figures on the missing central panel. She fervently presses her hands together in a gesture of prayer- a model for the pious beholder to emulate.