The title of Angelica Montagner’s ‘The Man Who Walked With God’ is somewhat appropriate as she was a person who was close to Saint Patrick. As a result, the title also refers to her walking with God, as she is often portrayed as being pregnant with Saint Patrick himself. This is a personification of how she felt about herself and how she was related to him. But what really separates Angelica from other paintings of this time is the depth of her expression and the knowledge she had in mind of the reality that she was in. In the painting, Angelica is depicted as being young at heart and this is a result of the truth that her natural instincts took control and led her to have a relationship with a young boy who was about her age.
Angelica’s relationship with the young man, which would have been born in 1497, shows us how much she adored the person she was with and how deeply she cared for him. This is a lady who was a true artist and a formidable one at that, as she was able to convey her emotions through her art and this is shown through the quality of the expression on her face. When we consider that Angelica was able to overcome all the defects that kept her from finding happiness in her career and even in her own home, it is easy to see why she ended up being associated with Saint Patrick and his legend. Angelica Montagner is perhaps best remembered for being the first Italian-born artist to paint a depiction of St. Patrick, although many other artists have done so before and during his lifetime.
Angelica Montagner’s ‘The Man Who Walked With God’ remains a great mystery for those who are familiar with Italian art and for those who have never seen it, but even for these people the work is magnificent. If we accept the suggestion that the style of art is more concerned with the emotion behind the work than with accuracy, we will probably conclude that the life and times of Angelica Montagner were more important than the creation of one particular painting. However, even if this suggestion is not entirely correct, the fact is that we can learn a great deal about the man and the art by looking at the wonderful paintings that followed. We can learn a lot, for example, about the man and woman who influenced Montagner, and we can discover the influence that he had on others.