Cleveland Museum of Art

The Temptation of St. Anthony

Martin Schongauer

Date

1470–75

Medium

engraving

Culture

Germany

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Saint Anthony (c. AD 251–356) was an Egyptian hermit known for having established the ideal of monasticism, seclusion, and meditation in Christianity. According to the Life of Saint Anthony written by the 20th bishop of Alexandria Athanasius (c. AD 360), Anthony was assaulted by several demons and tormented by erotic visions during his retreat to the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Martin Schongauer's print marks the very moment in which a highly animated demonic attack took place in the sky. Nine whimsical monsters—composed of reptilian, mammalian, and fish- and bird-like parts—flap, blow, and grasp a stiff and indifferent Saint Anthony. With his firm discipline, the saint epitomizes the Christian's struggle to resist evil temptations. Prints of Saint Anthony like this one were believed to function as protective tools against ergotism (also called St. Anthony's Fire), a disease causing painful putrefaction of the limbs cased by fungus found on rye.

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