The gate of the year

Painting by Taddeo Crivelli, realized around 1469, as illustration for a manuscript (Ms. Ludwig IX 13, fol. 204v ), in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA. The image represents Saint Anthony the Abbott, in front of his hermit refuge, with the piglet which shall be his constant companion in popular depictions.

[Image: http://search.getty.edu/gateway/search]

The figure of Saint Anthony is particularly associated with the origins of Christian monasticism and with the tradition that narrates of the Saint’s capacity to overcome the temptations of the demons, which was transmitted to posterity in the Saint Anthony’s Life, hagiographic work written in the IV century. In medieval Christianity, the Saint was venerated as protector of domesticated animals and was frequently represented with a pig beside him. His feast, which was celebrated on January 17, even in the contemporary age, has been the opportunity for the blessing of the domestic animals on churchyards, and the priests were used to distribute images of the Saint which were hanged in the stables as propitiatory objects. Another custom was the preparation of a blessed cake, which was then given both to the animals and to the people (Cattabiani 2003, p. 123).
Traditionally, the feast of Saint Anthony was the moment in which the pig was slaughtered. It was regarded as the animal “fat” par excellence and its killing inaugurated a period of abundance and laxity, corresponding to the Carnival period, which should be closed with the establishment of the restrictions of Lent.
His hermit attribute rendered the Saint in some measure contiguous with the world of nature, in particular with the Wild Man, with whom he shared his habitat, like the caves and hollows, which constituted point of passage between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The “Temptations of Saint Anthony”, represented in the well-known engraving by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1557), are carried out by beings who come forth out of openings which communicates with the Underworld, the realm populated by the anciently dead who possess anthropomorphic, animal and plant attributes. Crivelli’s image shows the popular pig which usually accompanies the Saint as properly a little boar, an animal more suited to the lone cave in which the hermit lived. It could be seen here, under the guise of the Christian Saint, the reappearance of an ancient Celtic god, associated with the boar, fierce and wild animal. Some folk tales describe Saint Anthony the Abbott as the custodian of Hell’s gates, from which, with the aid of his piglet, he was able to bring out the fire for mankind remained without the means of warming themselves (Cattabiani 2003, p. 124).




Feasts

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Painting by Taddeo Crivelli, realized around 1469, as illustration for a manuscript (Ms. Ludwig IX 13, fol. 204v ), in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA. The image represents Saint Anthony the Abbott, in front of his hermit refuge, with the piglet which shall be his constant companion in popular depictions. [Image: http://search.getty.edu/gateway/search] The figure of Saint Anthony is particularly associated with the origins of Christian monasticism and with the tradition that narrates of the Saint’s capacity to overcome the temptations of the demons, which was transmitted to posterity in the Saint Anthony’s Life, hagiographic work written in the IV century. In medieval Christianity, the Saint was venerated as protector of domesticated animals and was frequently represented with a pig beside him. His feast, which was celebrated on January 17, even in the contemporary age, has been the opportunity for the blessing of the domestic animals on churchyards, and the priests were used to distribute images of the Saint which were hanged in the stables as propitiatory objects. Another custom was the preparation of a blessed cake, which was then given both to the animals and to the people (Cattabiani 2003, p. 123). Traditionally, the feast of Saint Anthony was the moment in which the pig was slaughtered. It was regarded as the animal “fat” par excellence and its killing inaugurated a period of abundance and laxity, corresponding to the Carnival period, which should be closed with the establishment of the restrictions of Lent. His hermit attribute rendered the Saint in some measure contiguous with the world of nature, in particular with the Wild Man, with whom he shared his habitat, like the caves and hollows, which constituted point of passage between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The “Temptations of Saint Anthony”, represented in the well-known engraving by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1557), are carried out by beings who come forth out of openings which communicates with the Underworld, the realm populated by the anciently dead who possess anthropomorphic, animal and plant attributes. Crivelli’s image shows the popular pig which usually accompanies the Saint as properly a little boar, an animal more suited to the lone cave in which the hermit lived. It could be seen here, under the guise of the Christian Saint, the reappearance of an ancient Celtic god, associated with the boar, fierce and wild animal. Some folk tales describe Saint Anthony the Abbott as the custodian of Hell’s gates, from which, with the aid of his piglet, he was able to bring out the fire for mankind remained without the means of warming themselves (Cattabiani 2003, p. 124).