Venetian Commission Booklets with St. Anthony of Padua

17th century
Hand-painted page illustrations
Correr Museum, Venice

These are frontispiece illustrations for small books containing the republic's commissions appointing the governors of Belluno (on the left) and Cefalonia. On the left, an image of St. Anthony of Padua is used as a sort of secondary symbol of the Venetian state in its expanded form. (His attributes are the stalk of lilies, the tonsure, and the Franciscan habit). The image on the right simply assumes that role for the saint and presents his own "commissioning" by the Christ Child and his mother, who as usual wears a blue mantle over a red robe.

The white spots on the photographs are due to reflections on the glass under which the booklets are displayed.

View the Belluno page and the Cefalonia page in full resolution.
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Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.