Saint Antony of Padua and the Infant Christ

We are grateful to Professor Filippo Maria Ferro for confirming the attribution (letter 18 May 1999); the picture is to be included in his catalogue raisonné, to be published shortly. He points out that the Child is similar to that in the Holy Family sold in these Rooms, 12 December 1975, lot 103 (1,600 gns.). The subject refers to a famous vision of the Saint, that was to become a popular theme in Counter-Reformation painting. The depiction of the Saint with his arms around the Child was a model that the artist would often repeat in pictures late in his career.