Saint Anthony Abbot and two praying angels

We find ourselves in front of a lunette, a half-moon sculpture, which overlooked a door, measuring 97 centimetres high by 190 centimetres wide. It is a glazed and polychrome terracotta that was made by Andrea della Robbia between 1492 and 1495 and comes from the oratory of Saint Anthony Abbot.
In the centre of the composition is Saint Anthony, whose relief appears to extend beyond the spectator's fourth wall. In the middle, he carries a tunic and a pilgrim's stick. The calm expression on the face is framed by a long beard. Entirely white, he stands out against the glazed terracotta's blue background.
In almost symmetrical fashion, two white angels, each on one side, rotate the torso towards the Saint with their hands joined. In the two angels, now free of sculptural models, the artist combines the nuance of Verrocchio and Leonardo with the quivering lines of Filippino Lippi, the artist with whom Andrea Della Robbia shared Fra Girolamo Savonarola's religious ideals.
The whole scene is compactly brought together by a circular crown of fruit festoons, from which the citrus fruits emerge in all their colourful vigour, enlivening the colour of the ribbons in a fresh synthesis of plastic elements.