Saint Anthony or Antony the Great, known as the ‘Father of All Monks’. Renaissance fresco in former Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Reparata (Church of Saints John and Reparata) at Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. The saint, also known as Anthony the Abbot, was an early Christian hermit from Egypt who is said to have died in 356 AD, aged 105. Here he is depicted holding as a venerable old man with flowing white beard.
Lucca, Tuscany, Italy: Egyptian early Christian hermit monk, Saint Anthony or Antony the Great, rests his right hand on the T-shaped handle of a wooden staff or crutch in this square detail of a Renaissance fresco in the former Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Reparata (Church of Saints John and Reparata) in Piazza San Giovanni. St Anthony, depicted here as an old man with a flowing white beard, is said to have died in 356 AD, aged 105. He is also known as Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Abbot and Anthony the Hermit, and as the Father of All Monks. He is venerated by Coptic, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican Christians. The church in Lucca’s historic centre was rebuilt in the 12th century as a Romanesque basilica, on the site of a 1st century AD Roman house and baths complex and a 5th century early Christian baptistery and church that served as the city’s cathedral until the 8th century. The rebuilt church retained its predecessor’s early Christian layout, with its three naves separated by re-used Roman columns. It is now a museum displaying the layered excavated remains of the earlier structures on the site. The white marble 1600s late Renaissance facade fronting Piazza San Giovanni retains the sculpted central portal from the 12th century church.
Size: 2518px × 2518px
Location: Chiesa dei Santi Giovanni e Reparata, Piazza San Giovanni, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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