St. Anthony was the most famous orator of his time, but images of him rarely address this aspect of his life. At first he was simply shown in the habit of the Franciscan order to which he belonged, as at left. Then, as the number of Franciscan saints increased the iconography struggled to distinguish him from the others.
Because of the legend that St. Anthony had once preached to the fish, these were sometimes used as his attribute (example). He is also often seen with a lily stalk.
Other conventions referred to St. Anthony's visionary fervor. Thus, one attribute in use for some time was a flaming heart (example). Another key pattern has him meditating on a book in which the Christ Child himself appears (example). Over time the child came to be shown considerably larger than the book (example), and some images even do without the book entirely (example).
Feast day: June 13
At left, portrait of St. Anthony - Metropolitan Museum, New York
Another image:
17th century painting of Anthony with
Christ and puttiMenu