Tender Love

by Sarah Loft

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Title

Tender Love

Artist

Sarah Loft

Medium

Photograph - Digitally Painted Photograph

Description

When visiting St Peter's Church in Mainz, Germany, I came across this statue of St Anthony of Padua. I was intrigued to see such a tender depiction of a man and a baby, something much more usual in depictions of mothers. The statue is in rather poor condition and my photograph of it required some considerable digital work to cover chipped areas. The depictions of St Anthony of Padua with the baby Jesus have an interesting origin-- see the article below.

Per Wikipedia: Saint Anthony of Padua, born Fernando Martins de Bulhões (1195 – 13 June 1231), also known as Anthony of Lisbon, was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was born and raised by a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, and died in Padua, Italy. Noted by his contemporaries for his powerful preaching, expert knowledge of scripture, and undying love and devotion to the poor and the sick, he was one of the most quickly canonized saints in church history. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on 16 January 1946.

After his ordination to the priesthood, Fernando was named guestmaster and placed in charge of hospitality for the Abbey of Santa Cruz in Coimbra. While he was in Coimbra, some Franciscan friars arrived and settled at a small hermitage outside Coimbra dedicated to Saint Anthony of Egypt. Fernando was strongly attracted to the simple, evangelical lifestyle of the friars, whose order had been founded only eleven years prior. News arrived that five Franciscans had been beheaded in Morocco, the first of their order to be killed. King Afonso ransomed their bodies to be returned and buried as martyrs in the Abbey of Santa Cruz. Inspired by their example, Fernando obtained permission from church authorities to leave the Canons Regular to join the new Franciscan Order. Upon his admission to the life of the friars, he joined the small hermitage in Olivais, adopting the name Anthony (from the name of the chapel located there, dedicated to Saint Anthony the Great), by which he was to be known.

Anthony then set out for Morocco, in fulfillment of his new vocation. However, he fell seriously ill in Morocco and set sail back for Portugal in hope of regaining his health. On the return voyage the ship was blown off course and landed in Sicily.

From Sicily he made his way to Tuscany where he was assigned to a convent of the order, but he met with difficulty on account of his sickly appearance. He was finally assigned to the rural hermitage of San Paolo near Forlì, Romagna, a choice made after considering his poor health. There he had recourse to a cell one of the friars had made in a nearby cave, spending time in private prayer and study.

[Anthony] soon came to the attention of the founder of the order, Francis of Assisi. Francis had held a strong distrust of the place of theological studies in the life of his brotherhood, fearing that it might lead to an abandonment of their commitment to a life of real poverty. In Anthony, however, he found a kindred spirit for his vision, who was also able to provide the teaching needed by young members of the order who might seek ordination. In 1224 he entrusted the pursuit of studies for any of his friars to the care of Anthony.

Occasionally he took another post, as a teacher, for instance, at the universities of Montpellier and Toulouse in southern France, but it was as a preacher that Anthony revealed his supreme gift. According to historian Sophronius Clasen, Anthony preached the grandeur of Christianity. His method included allegory and symbolical explanation of Scripture. In 1226, after attending the General Chapter of his order held at Arles, France, and preaching in the French region of Provence, Anthony returned to Italy and was appointed provincial superior of northern Italy. He chose the city of Padua as his location.

Anthony became sick with ergotism, a disease which is now known also under the name "Saint Anthony's Fire", and, in 1231, went to the woodland retreat at Camposampiero with two other friars for a respite. There he lived in a cell built for him under the branches of a walnut tree. Anthony died on the way back to Padua on 13 June 1231 at the Poor Clare monastery at Arcella (now part of Padua), aged 35.

[In artistic representation a] key pattern has him meditating on an open book in which the Christ Child himself appears. Over time the child came to be shown considerably larger than the book and some images even do without the book entirely. He typically appears carrying the infant Jesus and holding a cross.

Per Wikipedia: St. Peter's Church (in German Peterskirche) is located beneath Deutschhaus Mainz in the northwest of the historical center of Mainz, Germany. It is the one of the most important rococo buildings in Mainz. Originally it was a collegiate church monastery of ″St. Peter before the walls″, which had existed since the 10th century and is dedicated to the apostle Peter as patron. Today it serves as a parish church for the parish of St. Peter / St. Emmeran.

The collegiate was founded 944 by archbishop Frederick north of the city wall.

Due to its location before the gates, the collegiate was completely destroyed by Swedish attacks 1631 in the Thirty Years' War.

The construction of the new St. Peter's Church lasted from 1749 to 1756. The church was consecrated 2 May 1756 by Archbishop Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein. Due to the fact that Mainz Cathedral lay partially in ruins St. Peter's was chosen for the inauguration of bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar in 1803.

The present building of St. Peter's is a baroque hall (three bays) with double onion dome tower façade by architect Johann Valentin Thoman. Under French occupation, the church became a stable in 1813. When the control of the Fortress of Mainz passed to the German Confederation it became the garrison church of the Prussian garrison parts, which it remained until 1918. Then it was dedicated a parish church.

St. Peter had survived the first major air raid on Mainz in August 1942. The second serious attack on Mainz in autumn 1944 had significantly worse consequences. The South Tower was hit by a high explosive bomb and fell onto the nave, where it hit a big hole in the vault. The north tower, the choir room and large parts of the nave, however, were undamaged.

On 27 February 1945, Mainz was almost completely destroyed by air raids with incendiary bombs. St. Peter's Church lost its tower façade, the nave was burnt out.

Much was irretrievably lost, most notably the organ, the ceiling frescoes from 1755 by Joseph Ignaz Appiani, showing the life and work of St. Peter, and the choir stalls. The great baroque altars, stucco decoration and the most valuable piece of equipment, the great pulpit of Johannes Förster, were not destroyed.

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Featured in the Images That Excite You group, October 2017.

Featured in the Mannequin Statue Doll Sculpture Gallery group, November 2017.