The Death of Saint Anthony
Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro?)·c. 1430/1435
Historical Context
The Death of Saint Anthony by the Master of the Osservanza, painted around 1430-1435, concludes the narrative cycle depicting the life of the desert father. Anthony's peaceful death after more than a century of ascetic life in the Egyptian desert represented the ideal of the holy death — a peaceful passing surrounded by fellow monks after a life devoted to God. The panel completes one of the most important narrative series in early fifteenth-century Sienese painting.
Technical Analysis
The tempera-on-poplar technique renders the deathbed scene with the characteristic clarity and decorative refinement of the Sienese school. The composition arranges the mourning monks around the dying saint with narrative precision and emotional restraint.
Provenance
Private collection, Rome; (Sestieri's, Rome); (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); sold July 1948 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1952 to NGA. [1] The Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini Bonacossi on 7 June 1948 for a group of twenty-eight paintings, including _The Death of Saint Anthony_; the offer was accepted on 11 July 1948 (see copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2141).
