A woman with piled-up, beehive-style hair stands, arms folded, listing to a youth with a golden halo later to be canonised as the hermit saint Anthony the Abbot or Anthony the Great. Damaged late-1400s rustic fresco, attributed to itinerant Lombardic artist Dionisio Baschenis, on outside wall of Chiesa di Sant’Antonio Abate at Pelugo, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy.
Pelugo, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy: a woman or girl with beehive-style piled-up hair stands with folded arms as she listens to a youth with golden hair and a golden halo. After spending much of his subsequent life living in complete solitude in the Egyptian desert as a hermit, he would eventually be canonised as St Anthony the Abbot or St Anthony the Great. This rustic fresco was painted in the late-1400s or early 1500s on the southern external wall of the Chiesa di Sant’Antonio Abate or Church of Saint Anthony the Abbot at Pelugo, a small village in the scenic Val Rendena. It was badly damaged by the later insertion of a semicircular window and a large part of the painted area is now missing. The artwork is attributed to the itinerant Lombardic painter, a member of a family of nomadic artists based at Averara, near Bergamo. The scene is part of a fresco cycle, spread over 30 panels in two rows, telling the life story of the saint, also known as Anthony of the Desert, Anthony of Egypt and Anthony the Anchorite. Centuries of sun and rain have all but erased some panels, including scrolled inscriptions in the vernacular tongue spoken by Pelugo’s villagers. Over several decades, the Baschenis family decorated dozens of churches throughout Trentino with biblical frescoes. At Pelugo, Dionisio also painted the giant figure on the church’s frescoed facade of St Christopher carrying the Christ Child, which he signed and dated 1493. Nomadic artisans like the Baschenis family travelled all over the alpine region, selling their skills wherever they could and working mostly at small churches in isolated mountain villages. They painted popular images rather than fine art, but their works successfully communicated the Christian message and Bible stories to the villagers.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Pelugo, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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