About this 3D model

This image of Saint Anthony of Padua with the Christ Child on a book was carved in the kingdom of Kongo, which had adopted Christianity toward the end of the fifteenth century, shortly after the arrival of the Portuguese. A specifically Kongolese Catholicism evolved. Anthony is depicted as a young monk in accordance with European tradition. The child, however, holds a fly whisk, a Kongolese emblem of power. Such images could also be used as power figures. In this case, the other-worldly force is present in them, and these figures were not simple representations, like that of Saint Christopher.