Andrea Sacchi | Saints Anthony Abbot and Francis of Assisi | NG6382

Key facts

Full title	Saints Anthony Abbot and Francis of Assisi
Artist	Andrea Sacchi
Artist dates	1599/1600 - 1661
Series	Four Saints for Palazzo Barberini
Date made	before 1627
Medium and support	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	61 × 78 cm
Acquisition credit	Presented by Messrs P. and D. Colnaghi, 1967
Inventory number	NG6382
Location	Not on display
Collection	Main Collection

Saints Anthony Abbot and Francis of Assisi

Andrea Sacchi

Holding a book that seems to thrust forward out of the picture plane is Saint 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 Saint 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. A painting by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Sacchi’s contemporary, which depicts two saints and has a similar format and dimensions is also in the National Gallery’s collection.

This highly atmospheric painting of two saints owes much to the influence of Caravaggio, who, some two decades earlier, had pioneered the use of tightly framed compositions with dramatic lighting set against dark backgrounds. Sacchi worked in Rome, like Caravaggio, and would certainly have seen his work. As is clear here, it is a technique which can create a powerful sense of realism – the impression that the viewer is sharing the same intimate space as the two men.

On the left, holding a book that seems to thrust forward out of the picture plane – almost close enough to touch – is Saint Anthony Abbot. He is identified by the tau- (T-) shaped walking stick he used in later life (he is reputed to have died at the age of 105). He also wears the black habit that his followers, the Antonine monks, later adopted. Next to him, slightly set back, is Saint Francis of Assisi, identified by his dark brown friar’s habit and the bloody wound on the back of his hand. This is one of the stigmata – the five wounds suffered by Christ on his chest, feet and hands during the Crucifixion, which were miraculously visited on the saint during an angelic vision.

Why would Sacchi pair these two saints together? It has been suggested that he may have been commissioned by two brothers – Cardinals Antonio and Francesco Barberini – to depict their name saints. The men were nephews of Maffeo Barberini, the head of the family and one of Rome’s leading patrons of the arts, who became Pope Urban VIII in 1623. However, while the painting was documented as part of the Barberini family collection by 1692, it doesn't seem to have been acquired until after 1661 – nearly 40 years after it was made.

There are also clear religious links connecting the saints, which might have interested a patron, or Sacchi himself. Saint Anthony was a hermit who lived a simple life in isolation in the Egyptian desert, where he spent some years preaching and attracted a significant number of followers. As a result he is often considered the founder of monasticism. Saint Francis, who lived more than 700 years later in central Italy, led a similarly ascetic life, renouncing possessions, preaching in the open air and relying on charity to survive. He founded his own order of mendicant friars (those who relied solely on alms) and, like Anthony, is associated with the tau-shaped cross, which he adopted as a symbol of his faith.

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. Both frown with intense concentration, but they seem unaware of each other. Saint Anthony in the foreground is immersed in his studies, his right hand about to turn the page of what we must assume is his Bible. Saint Francis strikes a contrasting pose: his hands are crossed in religious submission, and his gaze is turned heavenwards as he seeks more immediate inspiration directly from God.

An argument has been made that Sacchi’s painting may have been commissioned as part a pair, the other, which is also in the National Gallery’s collection and similarly depicts two saints, being by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. However, the exact nature of the relationship between the two is uncertain.

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Saints Anthony Abbot and Francis of Assisi by Andrea Sacchi

Four Saints for Palazzo Barberini

These paintings were made by two rising stars of the art world in Rome in the 1620s – one by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the other by Andrea Sacchi. Both depict two saints at half-length, tightly framed and dramatically lit. They are almost exactly the same size, seem to have been made at around the same date and were in the collection of the powerful Barberini family.

It has been suggested that they were made as companion pieces, but documents suggest that the Sacchi painting wasn’t acquired by the Barberini until 1661 at the earliest, more than 30 years after they bought Bernini’s picture. Close examination has also shown that the Bernini painting was trimmed along both vertical sides after it was finished while the Sacchi was extended slightly, presumably so that the sizes of the two would match. On balance, it seems unlikely that they were originally made as a pair. Instead, the similarities seem to have tempted the Barberini family to adapt the pictures and hang them together at a later date.

These paintings were made by two rising stars of the art world in Rome in the 1620s – one is by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the other, Andrea Sacchi – who shared the same powerful patron, Maffeo Barberini (Pope Urban VIII). There are clear similarities between the pictures. Both depict two saints at half-length, one positioned slightly behind the other. The compositions are tightly framed and dramatically lit, and use the same palette of earth and flesh tones offset by a black background.

There are interesting contrasts too. Bernini’s pair of saints are the apostles Andrew and Thomas, who were among the first disciples of Christ. They knew each other well and are shown engaged in a discussion over a religious text. Sacchi’s pair are Saints Anthony Abbot and Francis of Assisi, who were from later ages and lived at different times. Both were strongly associated with monasticism and lived simple, reflective lives without possessions or worldly encumbrances. In Sacchi’s painting they share the same pictorial space but are unaware of each other, lost in their own separate devotional worlds.

Given these similarities and contrasts, and since both pictures are almost exactly the same size and seem to have been made at around the same date, it has been suggested that they were painted as companion pieces. Perhaps there is some religious significance to the pairings, or maybe they were commissioned as a way of pitting Bernini and Sacchi against one another in order to generate an artistic debate. It is also possible that the pictures were not simply a pendant pair, but part of an unfinished, or lost, series of saints.

At first sight, the fact that the Bernini painting was recorded in a Barberini inventory of 1627 and that payment for a Sacchi painting of ‘two heads of Apostles’ was made two weeks later by Cardinal Franceso Bernini (Maffeo’s nephew) seems to add weight to this theory. However, this painting by Sacchi doesn‘t depict two apostles, and while it’s conceivable that whoever made the 1627 record may have misidentified Saint Anthony, it’s highly unlikely that he would have failed to recognise Saint Francis, who would never have been described as an apostle. Francis was one of the most famous and revered saints, and his highly distinctive attribute – a stigmata wound – is clearly displayed in this picture. Apostles were also never depicted wearing monk’s habits, as these two saints are. It seems much more likely that the 1627 record references a different work altogether, while this painting is almost certainly the one of Saints Francis and Anthony that is recorded in an inventory of the contents of Sacchi’s house made after his death in 1661. So it seems that the Barberini family didn’t acquire Sacchi’s painting until more than 30 years after they bought Bernini’s one. In fact, the first time they are indisputably documented together is even later – in 1692, when they were both in the collection of Cardinal Carlo Barberini.

The matching size of the two paintings also seems to be misleading. Close examination has shown that the Bernini was trimmed along both vertical sides after it was finished and that Sacchi’s painting was extended slightly, So, on balance, it seems unlikely that the two paintings were originally made as a pair. It is certainly possible that one artist was influenced by the other’s work, and the similarities and contrasts between them seem to have tempted the Barberini family to adapt and hang them together at a later date.

Andrea Sacchi, Saints Anthony Abbot and Francis of Assisi

Four Saints for Palazzo Barberini