A golden angelic messenger carries God’s message to two hermits sitting in a desert mountain cave: detail of late-1400s rustic fresco on an outside wall of the Chiesa di Sant’Antonio Abate at Pelugo, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy. The hermits are St Anthony the Abbot and either Paul of Thebes or Paul the Simple.
Pelugo, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy: Saint Anthony the Abbot sits in a mountain cave in the Egyptian desert with another hermit, probably either Paul of Thebes or Paul the Simple, as an angel clad all in gold and with golden hair delivers a message from God. This charming 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 is attributed to the itinerant Lombardic painter Dionisio or Dionysius Baschenis, 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 the Great, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony of Egypt and Anthony the Anchorite. Centuries of sun and rain have all but erased some panels, including the very faded lower section of this artwork with its scrolled inscriptions in the vernacular tongue spoken by Pelugo’s villagers. The colours of the upper area are relatively bright, as it was better protected against the weather by the church eaves. 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: 2810px × 2008px
Location: Pelugo, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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