# Sts Anthony Abbot and Francis of Assisi [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [SACCHI, Andrea]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 61 x 78 cm ## Commentary Holding a book that seems to thrust forward out of the picture plane is St Anthony Abbot, identified by the tau- \(T-\) shaped walking stick he used in later life. He also wears a black habit, which his followers, the Antonine monks, later adopted. Next to him, slightly set back, is St Francis of Assisi, with his dark brown friar's habit and a bloody wound on his hand. This is one of the stigmata – the five wounds suffered by Christ on the Cross, which were miraculously visited on the saint. Sacchi has created a simple but effective contrast between the two meditative saints. They appear to share the same physical space, lit by a bright, raking light from the left, but they seem unaware of each other. Saint Anthony is immersed in his studies; Saint Francis's hands are crossed in religious submission, and his gaze is turned heavenwards. ## Related artworks - [Ceiling fresco]() - [Hagar and Ismail in the Desert]() - [Marcantonio Pasquilini Crowned by Apollo]() - [Portrait of Monsignor Clemente Merlini]() - [St Francis Marrying Poverty]() - [The Three Magdalenes]() - [The Vision of St Romuald]() - [Venus at Rest]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()