Saint Anthony Abbot

Saint Anthony Abbot — Fra Angelico. 1440–41.

Medium: Tempera on panel. Dimensions: 39.4 × 14 cm (15 1/2 × 5 1/2 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

This panel painting represents Saint Anthony Abbot, a fourth-century Egyptian hermit considered the founder of Christian monasticism. It was part of a major altarpiece commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici for the high altar of the church of San Marco in Florence, a Dominican convent where the artist himself resided after he became a friar. Before the altarpiece was dismantled by the early 19th century, the central image was a large panel representing the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus with saints; below this a horizontal predella featured episodes from the lives of the Medici family’s patron saints, Cosmas (Cosimo’s namesake) and Damian. At each side were upright registers with 10 panels depicting individual saints standing on clouds, including this painting.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.