This is the third panel of the triptych of the life of St. Anthony that I wrote about two posts previous. The painting belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
This is a really fine example of the Gothic practice of representing the same character in different points of time within the same image. Saint Anthony can be seen first entering this landscape in the upper left hand side of the picture wearing a monk’s robe and carrying a traveler’s staff. Later, around the bend, he has an improbable meeting with a Centaur, and lastly in the bottom of the composition, in front of St. Paul’s cave, the two saints embrace in greeting.
[Top of the post: The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul, c. 1430/1435, Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro?), National Gallery of Art in Washington]
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