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Your galleryThe Temptation of Saint Anthony
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Count the demons pulling at the saint’s beard, hair and robe, then look at how calm his face stays in the middle of the attack.
A life of Saint Anthony written in the 300s tells how demons attacked the hermit in the Egyptian desert. Schongauer lifts the struggle into the air: nine monsters, built from parts of reptiles, mammals, fish and birds, grab and strike at the saint, who stays stiff and unmoved. The print traveled far, and in Florence in 1487 the young Michelangelo copied it in paint, his first known painting.
Engraving in black on cream laid paper · Plate/image: 29.9 × 22.9 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Late Gothic and Early Renaissance
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Temptation of Saint Anthony
- Artist
- Martin Schongauer German, c. 1430/50-1491
- Date
- c. 1469/73
- Medium
- Engraving in black on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- Plate/image: 29.9 × 22.9 cm (11 13/16 × 9 1/16 in.); Sheet: 32.4 × 23.6 cm (12 13/16 × 9 5/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.