The Temptation of St. Anthony is an engraving, probably created c. 1470–75, by Martin Schongauer of this popular scene in 15th-century art. [1] In it, grotesque demons swarm around Saint Anthony the Great, bursting with movement and energy as the saint calmly resists their temptations or blows. St. Anthony is shown with some of his signature attributes, dressed in a monk's religious habit and cowl, carrying a staff with a tau-shaped handle and his bound girdle book hanging from his belt. The literary source from which this image derives is debated. The image could depict chapter 65 from Athanasius's Life of St. Anthony, where the hermit has a vision of himself floating through the air and undefined beings prevent him from ascending back to reality or it could show the ninth chapter of Athanasius's Life of St. Anthony, where St. Anthony is attacked by the devil in the form of animals and beasts in the Egyptian desert and is levitated in the air by his practice of rigorous asceticism. [2]
In The Temptation of St. Anthony, Schongauer's engraving technique forms the image from dots, lines and areas of hatching, varying spaces between them in order to enhance the interaction of white and black. [3] The engraving exists in two states with only minor details added to the second. [4] Parallel and fine cross hatching can be seen in the hermit's drapery and in the texture of the devils. Contour hatching can also be seen in the drapery of the monk as well as on the battered crags in the right hand corner. Tick hatching is seen in sky which indicates the atmosphere.
The vast amount of negative space in the background accentuates St. Anthony's vulnerability while the curving and horizontal lines of the devils add energy and movement. The grotesque devils are illustrated with a mixture of body parts from different animals. Schongauer's mastery of texture is shown by giving the viewer a sense of how each beast would feel ranging from the roughness of the scales to the soft hairiness of the fur. The heavily worked foreground is balanced by progressively more isolated lines in the background, showing his control of light.
The Temptation of St. Anthony depicts no real landscape besides a battered crag in the right hand corner leaving room for debate on what exact moment in the life of St. Anthony this scene depicts. Some scholars believe the scene depicts chapter 65 of Athanasius's Life of St. Anthony, their primary argument being that the attack takes place in the air which parallels with St. Anthony's description of ecstasy in this chapter. Chapter 65 tells the tale of when St. Anthony was about to eat dinner and suddenly felt himself carried off as if he was outside of his body. Undefined beings stood in his way preventing him from ascending and "as his guides offered resistance, the others demanded on what plea he was not accountable to them…. Then as they brought accusations but could not prove them, the way was opened up to him free and unhindered and presently he saw himself approaching so it seemed to him and halting with himself and so he was the real Anthony again." [2] This chapter emphasizes the difference between good and bad spirits then goes on to talk about the devil and how many battles one must pass through the air in order to achieve celestial ascent.
Some scholars argue the image instead depicts chapter nine of Athanasius's Life of St. Anthony. In chapter nine Athanasius records when the saint was living in a cave in Egypt when the devil attacked him and left him half-dead. A friend found him and helped him recover and once St. Anthony had regained consciousness he asked to be sent back to fight these demons who took the shape of animals and beasts. The British Museum which owns a copy of the print describes the hermit's ascent: "the rigorous asceticism practiced by St Anthony in the Egyptian desert allowed him to levitate in the air, where he was attacked by devils trying to beat him to the ground," and soon after the creatures were driven away by the apparitions of Christ. [4] Texts that describe the attack provide few descriptive details, leaving room for artistic expression. In the Golden Legend, Jacobus de Voragine describes the devils as animals that attacked the saint with horns, claws and teeth. [5]
Schongauer was the first artist to sign all of his prints with a monogram. In The Temptation of St Anthony one can identify the date of the print by Schongauer's monogram. The image is one of the artist's early works. In his first ten prints his monogram is characterized by the M having vertical shanks, as opposed to the oblique shanks which appear in the rest of his prints after. The S in his earlier works is much thicker around the curves and finishes in diagonal strokes similar to roman capitals. This trait is seen in more than his first ten works but seems to decrease in his later works. [3] It is hypothesized that Schongauer used a stamp in his first ten engravings, which he later lost and began hand writing his monogram thereafter. [3]
This etching inspired many artists after Schongauer including Michelangelo, who as a boy painted a copy of the engraving, according to Giorgio Vasari. The Torment of Saint Anthony [6] [7] [8] is a copy of the engraving currently in the collection of the Kimbell Art Museum. [9] Some claim this painting is by Michelangelo, though there is no evidence for that attribution. [10]
In addition, this engraving has served as inspiration for later paintings on the same episode, such as The Temptation of St. Anthony by Jan Brueghel the Elder, where the same scene is shown in the upper right.
The prints can be found for example in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, [11] Rhode Island School of Design Museum. [12] For a more complete list of known prints of this engraving see the Schongauer catalogue originally by Max Lehrs. [13]
Albrecht Dürer, sometimes spelled in English as Durer, was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I.
Anthony the Great was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from other saints named Anthony, such as Anthony of Padua, by various epithets: Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Anthony the Hermit, and Anthony of Thebes. For his importance among the Desert Fathers and to all later Christian monasticism, he is also known as the Father of All Monks. His feast day is celebrated on 17 January among the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches and on Tobi 22 in the Coptic calendar.
Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oak wood, mainly contains fantastic illustrations of religious concepts and narratives. Within his lifetime, his work was collected in the Netherlands, Austria, and Spain, and widely copied, especially his macabre and nightmarish depictions of hell.
Martin Schongauer, also known as Martin Schön or Hübsch Martin by his contemporaries, was an Alsatian engraver and painter. He was the most important printmaker north of the Alps before Albrecht Dürer, a younger artist who collected his work. Schongauer is the first German painter to be a significant engraver, although he seems to have had the family background and training in goldsmithing which was usual for early engravers.
Master I. A. M. of Zwolle was an anonymous Dutch goldsmith and engraver who signed many of his works with his initials I. A. M. or I. A., and added "Zwolle" to some. His work is characterized by crowded and active scenes of people, graded tones and crisp strokes. Only 26 works by his hand are extant.
The Temptation of Saint Anthony is an often-repeated subject in the history of art and literature, concerning the supernatural temptation reportedly faced by Saint Anthony the Great during his sojourn in the Egyptian desert. Anthony's temptation is first discussed by Athanasius of Alexandria, Anthony's contemporary, and from then became a popular theme in Western culture.
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Master E. S. is an unidentified German engraver, goldsmith, and printmaker of the late Gothic period. He was the first major German artist of old master prints and was greatly copied and imitated. The name assigned to him by art historians, Master E. S., is derived from the monogram, E. S., which appears on eighteen of his prints. The title, Master, is used for unidentified artists who operated independently. He was probably the first printmaker to place his initials on his work.
The Hermit Saints is a religious oil on panel painting displayed as a triptych, meaning it is one whole painting composed of three separate scenes. It was painted ca. 1493 by the Early Netherlandish artist Hieronymus Bosch. The entirety of the triptych painting measures 86 by 60 centimetres. This artwork is currently being housed at the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
The Temptation of St. Anthony is a painting of disputed authorship, attributed to either the Early Netherlandish artist Hieronymus Bosch or a follower. It is now in the Museo del Prado, in Madrid.
An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition. The term remains current in the art trade, and there is no easy alternative in English to distinguish the works of "fine art" produced in printmaking from the vast range of decorative, utilitarian and popular prints that grew rapidly alongside the artistic print from the 15th century onwards. Fifteenth-century prints are sufficiently rare that they are classed as old master prints even if they are of crude or merely workmanlike artistic quality. A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term.
The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ. In both cases the number of scenes shown varies greatly with the space available. Works may be in any medium: frescoed church walls and series of old master prints have many of the fullest cycles, but panel painting, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, stone sculptures and ivory carvings have many examples.
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Master L. Cz. was an anonymous late 15th-century German Renaissance printmaker. Only twelve engravings by his hand are extant, but their virtuosity establishes him as a talented artist whose work marks a stylistic transition between that of Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer.
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The Triptych of Temptation of St. Anthony is an oil painting on wood panels by the Early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch, dating from around 1501. The work portrays the mental and spiritual torments endured by Saint Anthony the Great, one of the most prominent of the Desert Fathers of Egypt in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. The Temptation of St. Anthony was a popular subject in Medieval and Renaissance art. In common with many of Bosch's works, the triptych contains much fantastic imagery. The painting hangs in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon.
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Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons Martin Schongauer.