St. Anthony 1620 - 1953

Nicolas Pitau created this engraving, St. Anthony, in the late 17th or early 18th century, now housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The print presents a monochromatic study of form and texture. St. Anthony stands frontally, his figure a play of vertical lines emphasized by the fall of his monastic robes. Pitau masterfully uses hatching to define volume, creating depth within the two-dimensional plane. Notice how the fabric’s texture is rendered with such precision that one can almost feel the roughness of the cloth. The composition is structured, with the saint centrally positioned atop an architecturally detailed base, grounding the ethereal subject in tangible reality. The engraving technique itself—the strategic carving into the metal plate—mirrors St. Anthony’s ascetic practices of discipline and reduction. Pitau’s formal choices thus invite us to consider the semiotics of line and shadow, unveiling the spiritual austerity at the heart of this depiction.