Saint Anthony

Colourful Critique and Love for Others in Sculpted Cork

For us Portuguese, he is from Lisbon. For many others, from Padua.

Born in Lisbon as Fernando de Bulhões at the end of the 12th century, he became a friar, traveller, thinker. He was one of the great orators of his time. He died in Padua and was canonised just eleven months after his death.

Saint Anthony was a Franciscan. A symbol of love for others, of help and charity. But his story also speaks to us of eloquence, of miracles. He is called the Matchmaking Saint. Because of the legends. Because of the concrete actions of someone who, in life, preached and helped make love possible. Elevating feelings over dowries.

Perhaps that is why he remains so close. In Lisbon, in June, he always returns. In the streets, in the music, in the impromptu gatherings. In the shared affections.

Carved in cork by the hands of Porfírio Mendes, Saint Anthony is a close, human presence. And also playful, irreverent, defiant.

Porfírio Mendes possesses this gift, the unique reinterpretation of classical figures. With humour, expressiveness and character. In his cork, the colours are warm and deliberate, the expression is exaggerated with intention and the sacred gains a complicity that few materials would allow.

Between the sacred and the popular, between history and creation, Saint Anthony by Porfírio Mendes is more than a sculpture: it is memory, affection and imagination.

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