1590
oil
canvas
From the collection of Galleria Borghese
Dominant colour
Saint Anthony Preaching to the Fish is a 1590 oil by Paolo Veronese, a Mannerism work, depicting Anthony of Padua, held at Galleria Borghese.
This painting shows a man standing on a rock, wearing a long robe and gesturing with his right hand. He's surrounded by a crowd of people in colorful clothing, some of whom are looking up at him. In the background, there's a body of water with some boats and a distant landscape. The man on the rock seems to be preaching or teaching the crowd. The people around him appear to be listening intently. The scene is set against a backdrop of water and land, with a few buildings visible in the distance. If you're interested in learning more about the artist behind this painting, you might want to check out Paolo Veronese.
Saint Anthony Preaching to the Fish (Italian: Predica di sant'Antonio ai pesci; literally, Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fishes) is a 1580–1585 oil-on-canvas painting of Anthony of Padua by Paolo Veronese, now in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Its original location is unknown, though its medium dimensions of 104 centimetres (41 in) by 150 centimetres (59 in) mean it may have been painted for the side wall of a chapel or as part of a cycle of paintings for a small school (scuola) somewhere in Veneto. It entered the collection of Cardinal Scipione Borghese as a 1607 gift from Francesco Barbaro…
Source: wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The original or intended location of the painting is unknown, though given its horizontal orientation and medium size, it may have been painted for the side wall of a chapel or as part of a cycle for a small school (scuola) somewhere in Veneto. The painting came into Cardinal Scipione Borghese's collection as a 1607 gift from Francesco Barbaro. An existing letter from Barbaro to Borghese documents that Barbaro sent two paintings by Veronese to Borghese separately, though the letter does not describe the paintings in much detail. The letter does note the two paintings depict "sermons"; the…
Source: wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Compositionally, the painting is oriented horizontally. From left to right it is split into two halves. The left half contains mostly dark blue-green sea and the fish within it, with boats and a mountainous shoreline visible in the distance at extreme center-left. The sea is calm. The painting's right half shows the Rimini coastline upon which Saint Anthony and a crowd of bystanders are gathered, with the city and spires of Rimini visible in the distance at extreme center-right. From top to bottom, the painting may be considered split into three parts. The top third is mostly blue sky with…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Source: wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Paolo Caliari (1528 – 19 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( VERR-ə-NAY-zay, -zee, US also -see; Italian: ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of…
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