One reaches this by a staircase designed by Giovanni Gloria in 1733 up to the loggia where statues of three popes (Pius VI, Pius VII and John Paul II) stand blessing the faithful.
The great meeting room is a treasure chest of art, because several painters worked here creating that famous series of paintings known as the "Anthonian epopea".
The lacunar ceiling is by Giovanni Cavalieri who worked here together with the painter Girolamo da Piacenza from 1506 to 1510. The wooden altar has a wonderful terracotta statue of the Madonna and Child by Andrea Briosco (1520), with a fresco in the back ground by Domenico Campagnola (1533) with the figures of the saints Anthony and Francis.
The fame of the room comes from the eighteen paintings dating back, all except one, to the beginning of the sixteenth century and are the work of the most well-known Veneto artists of that period; they show scenes in the life and miracles of St. Anthony.
The most famous of these paintings are the four that were painted by the young Tiziano Vecellio (Titian) in 27 days, beginning them in 1510 and completing them by the end of the year. They show "The guardian Nicola da Strà distributing blessed bread", "The Saint making a newborn babe testifies to its mother's innocence", "The jealous husband stabbing his wife" and "the Saint re-attaching a young man's foot". Other events during the life and preaching of the Saint were painted by Girolamo Tessari, Filippo da Verona, Bartolomeo Montagna, Gian Antonio Corona, Benedetto Montagna, Gian Martino Frangipani, Francesco Vecellio and Antonio Buttafoco (1775). These cannot be compared to Titian, even though they worked to the best of their capacity so as to give the hall an excellent biography of St. Anthony, indispensable in those times when only very few people were able to read.
This cycle of paintings, in need of constant attention, has had a troubled existence due, above all, to the humidity that rises from below and the infiltrations from above. The archives of the Arca are rich in documents that talk about works of restoration. The roof has been repaired various times, the paintings have been covered with canvas, the adjacent sacristy has been eliminated (1877) because it was the cause of humidity. Then with Francesco Zannoni in 1748, and onwards, systematic work was begun on the paintings with greater or lesser success. In 1772 they were trusted to Domenico Buttafoco, in 1835 to Lorenzo Pinzon, in 1960 to G. B. Monici, in 1867 to Guglielmo Botti, in 1877 to Antonio Bertolli, in 1925 to Angelo Moro and in 1967 to Leonetto Tintori. Then Gianluigi Colalucci together with his son Simone did emergency work in 1980.
The decoration on the facade of the oratory, which in 1773 had been embellished on the top with the statues of the saints Anthony, Francis and Bonaventura, was redone in 1927 together with work on the south wall.
Now the upper hall has returned to its ancient splendour, and work will now be done on the little church on the ground floor, so by continuing to sing to the wonders of the Thaumaturge and stimulating his devotees to follow him along the path to Christian perfection.