This painting of St. Anthony was donated to Salute by the Venetian Senate during the Candia war. It shows Venice in prayer below Anthony and white sails on a distant sea. On the base of the altar are the allegorical figures of Clemency (not shown) Covert Faith, Modesty and Overt Faith. The altar was visited every year on St Anthony's feast day June 13 to commemorate freeing of the Venetian fleet from the plague. The painting is by Pietro Liberi.
Pietro Liberi
b. Padua 1605 - d. Venice 1687
As a young man, Liberi moved to Venice and trained with a master painter Alessandro Varotari, called il Padovanino. He traveled widely, to the east, to northern Africa, and to other parts of Europe. He also spent time studying and copying the masters in Rome. He was influenced in part by the great Bernini. His first Venetian commission was 'Mary Magdalene at the Foot of the Cross' at Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. He painted the 'Venetian Victory at the Dardanelles' for the Sala del Scrutinio in the Doges' Palace and the 'Brazen Serpent' for San Pietro de Castello. He worked in Austria-Hungary and Bohemia for the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold. Later he worked with his son Marco in Padua and Vicenza and back again to Venice.
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1) Salute Exterior - The Plague - Baldsarre Longhena [125]
