Saint Anthony of Padua and the Miracle of the Miser's Heart

Antonio Lombardo

1501 · Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash · Drawings and Prints

The drawing depicts Saint Anthony of Padua performing a miracle, likely that of the miser’s heart. Preaching on the sin of greed, Saint Anthony, here seen at the near left, tells his listeners that a man’s heart ends up with his treasures. To prove his point, he opens the body of a recently deceased miser to reveal that it is empty: as Anthony predicted, the man’s heart is discovered in his money chest alongside his gold. In June 1501, the Venetian brothers Antonio and Tullio Lombardo were commissioned to carve two marble reliefs for the Chapel of Sant’Antonio in Padua, based on the approval of a drawing to be submitted by the artists. Antonio never completed his relief, on the subject of the miser’s heart, though it was much later executed, with several variations, by Tullio. This recently acquired drawing appears to be the only record of Antonio’s original idea for the composition and is one of two extant drawings that can be attributed to him.

Artist

Antonio Lombardo

Date

1501

Medium

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Charles and Jessie Price Gift, 2012