The Visitation with Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony Abbot

Piero di Cosimo · c. 1489/1490
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Piero di Cosimo painted this large panel around 1489–1490 for the Capponi family’s chapel of Saint Nicholas in the church of Santo Spirito, Florence. That is why two saints from much later times, Nicholas and Anthony Abbot, sit in the front.

Mary and Elizabeth meet at the centre, hands clasped, the young and the old face to face. Behind them, in a deep landscape of towns and hills, Piero paints two later moments of the story as small scenes: the birth of Jesus and the killing of the children of Bethlehem.

From the text

Mary hurries to a town in the hill country of Judah (Luke 1:39)

She “entered the home of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth” (Luke 1:40)

Elizabeth older than Mary (Luke 1:7, 1:36)

The artist’s own

Saint Nicholas, a bishop of the 300s, with three golden balls — the sign painters gave him

Saint Anthony Abbot with spectacles, a T-shaped crutch, a bell and a pig, as painters usually showed him

Italian towers and churches in the hill country

Small background scenes of the Nativity and of the soldiers in Bethlehem

Details

Mary and Elizabeth

The two women clasp hands; Elizabeth, older, in a white veil and dark mantle.

The birth of Jesus

Mary and Joseph kneel by the Child, with an ox, a donkey and shepherds.

Bethlehem

Soldiers with swords among mothers and babies (Matthew 2:16).

Saint Nicholas

A bishop reading, with three golden balls on the floor by his feet.

Saint Anthony Abbot

Writing with a quill, spectacles on his nose; his pig in the field behind.

Piero di Cosimo, Florentine, 1462–1522. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.361) · Oil on panel · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)

The verses

Luke 1:39–45In those days Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah, where she entered the home of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord’s word to her will be fulfilled.”