Preaching to the Fish and Learning from the Deer: St. Hubert of Liège, St. Anthony of Padua, and Human–Animal Communication

This article discusses paintings of the stories of two Catholic saints from the early modern period to late 19th- and early 20th-century art: St. Hubert of Liège (c. 656–727) and St. Anthony of Padua (1195–1231). The text first compares the 16th- and 17th-century works to more modern ones and then proceeds to discuss the developments to produce an analysis of the changes in human–animal relations that the works reflect. In the article, I determine (1) the type of human–animal communication represented in paintings of the stories of St. Hubert and St. Anthony, (2) the ideologies and relations to nature behind them, (3) the differences in representations between the two periods and the reasons for these differences, and (4) the possible reasons behind such a revival and changes. The article maintains that the changes in the representations of the two themes were deeply entangled with philosophical and economic developments that are behind our modern views of nature.