Palma il Giovane, The Liberation of St. Anthony

Circa 1600
San Polo, Venice

This pictures the termination of Anthony's conflict with the demons. In the words of the Golden Legend, "Then came a clear brightness, and all the beasts fled away, and St. Anthony understood that in this great light our Lord came…." Instead of "clear brightness" and the Lord, the artist has angels come to rescue Anthony and drive the devils down to Hell. The latter are pictured with wings, an allusion to their being the "bad angels" who in a parallel event were driven from Heaven by St. Michael and his "good angels."

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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.