SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA WITH JESUS, MALINAS. WOOD. MECHELEN, 16TH CENTURY.

Saint Anthony with the Infant Jesus. Wood. School of Malines, 16th century. A carved wooden sculpture, worked, as was usual in this centre, on the front because it was intended to be placed on an altar, representing Saint Anthony of Padua with the Child Jesus sitting on a book, in one of the most common iconographies for this Franciscan saint. The relationship with the school of Malines is evident in the physiognomy of the figures, the remains of the polychromy, etc. The "poupées malinoises" or "Malines dolls" are small sculptures of saints made in the late 15th century and early 16th century in the workshops of Malines (Flanders) and were known by these names because of the similarity of their faces to those of dolls or peponas ("poupins"); they were sometimes also called "cutlet sculptures" because they were finished only at the front, being flat at the back, depending on the depth of the bottom of the niche where they were to be placed. They were made for small domestic altarpieces - normally containing three statuettes or "dolls" - rectangular in the shape of a box and with painted wings or doors. The best-known example is perhaps the altarpiece preserved in the Mayer van den Bergh Museum in Antwerp.

· Size: 8,5x3,5x28,5 cms