Saint Anthony of Padua with the Infant Christ

Anthony of Padua died in 1231 and was declared a saint less than a year later, which is about as fast as the church has ever moved. The way he is shown here, cradling the Christ Child, came much later, and by the time Zurbarán painted this canvas, somewhere between 1635 and 1650, it was simply how Spanish worshippers expected to see him. The picture was probably made for a church or a religious house in Manzanilla, a small town in the province of Huelva west of Seville, and a private collection there still had it in the 18th century. From Seville it passed through dealers, and by 1958 it belonged to a collector in Boston named Russell Stearns. That same year the Spanish education ministry bought it back for the Prado, which is how a painting made for a country church in Huelva became state property in Madrid.