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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