Saint Anthony Preaching to the Fish

Caliari Paolo called Paolo Veronese

(Verona 1528 - Venice 1588)

Entering Scipione Borghese’s collection in 1607 as a diplomatic gift, this painting depicts an unusual subject, most probably related to the donor and its supposed patron, the Patriarch of Aquileia Francesco Barbaro.

Object details

Commentary

Like Saint John the Baptist Preaching (inv. 137) also by Veronese, this painting was given to Scipione Borghese in 1607 as a diplomatic gift from Francesco Barbaro (1546–1616), Patriarch of Aquileia, who presumably also commissioned it. As can be seen from a letter addressed to Scipione Borghese, after sending a first painting (it is not yet possible to establish which of the two preaching paintings arrived in Rome first), Barbaro reassures the cardinal, whom he was evidently trying to please, by writing ‘I will promptly provide whatever serves the virtuous and worthy delight of Your Excellency’ (Della Pergola 1955).

Due to its particular size, the canvas, painted around 1580, could perhaps have been part of a cycle depicting the miracles of the Paduan saint, co-patron of the city of Turin, where Barbaro held the position of ambassador to the House of Savoy at the time.

The painting depicts Saint Anthony of Padua preaching to the fish, a rather uncommon subject in the history of art.

According to the sources, the miraculous sermon took place at the sea at Rimini, where Anthony, unable to preach due to the indifference of the inhabitants, walked down to the beach, calling loudly to the fish to make them listen to the praises to the Creator that the others refused to hear. Fish large and small came bobbing their heads out of the water to listen to his words, until even the people, intrigued by that gathering, joined in listening to the Franciscan, depicted standing on a small hill with his usual lily attribute.

Veronese divides the composition into two parts, on the left the sea with the fish and on the right a large audience, including men who, due to their somatic features and ‘oriental’ clothing, were immediately identified as heretics, those who not long before had refused to listen to the preacher’s words.  Of note is the attention that the artist pays to the sandals of the saint, standing with his feet firmly planted on the ground, in accordance with the apostle Paul’s exhortation to have his feet ‘(Eph. 6:15).

The gift of the painting, representative of the later production of Caliari, who had long been associated with the noble Barbaro family, can be traced back to that delicate phase in the Church’s relations with Venice, reaffirming the patriarch’s loyalty to the Pope and his authority. Once in Rome, the framed canvas was displayed in the cardinal’s picture gallery, at the time in Palazzo di Borgo, where it is described by Scipione Francucci (1613) and where it has always been mentioned since the 1693 inventory.

Sofia Barchiesi