The Saint Anne Altarpiece: Saint Anthony of Padua [right panel]

Gerard David and Workshop

National Gallery of Art

A pale-skinned man wearing a gray monk’s robe stands holding a wooden cross in one hand and a book and a baby in the other in this tall, narrow, vertical painting. The man is under a rounded arch in front of a deep landscape. His body faces us but he looks down and to our left with brown eyes under curved brows. He is clean-shaven, and his dark hair is cut into a ring around his head. The dark gray robe falls to his bare feet and is tied with a rope around his middle. The book he holds in his left hand, to our right, is open, the gold edges of the pages shiny against the vivid red binding. A small nude baby sits upright on the open book, hands together in prayer. The child has blond hair and thin limbs. The man stands on a pink and blue tiled floor near a gray step. Just beyond the dark gray stone arch is a cluster of royal blue iris. A grassy lawn extends to a body of water, a white tower tucked among trees, and distant blue hills under a pale blue sky.