The Temptation of Saint Anthony

c. 1550/1575

From high above the earth, we look down onto a view with a densely wooded area to the right, buildings clustered along a rocky ridge at the center, and a river winding back into the far distance to our left in this horizontal landscape painting. The color palette is dominated by pine and deep, emerald greens for the forest, tawny brown for tree trunks and the earth along the foreground, and slate gray and pale blue for the rocks, river, sky, and distant hazy landscape. Closer inspection reveals surprising and surreal details along the riverbanks and in the sky, beginning with a nightmarish hybrid of creatures and goblins in the lower right corner, at the outskirts of the forest. One creature has the body of a person with the head of a white bird, and another resembles a head walking around on two legs without a body. Tucked under a lean-to in the lower right, a man with a long white beard wearing a black hooded robe sits near goblin-like critters. In the foreground on our left, a group of people with peach-colored skin gathers around an oversized fish washed up onshore, which is covered with a black cloth marked with a large white X. A hooded and cloaked person sits atop the fish, holding a bell. Groups of fantastical creatures move in clusters or individually toward or around the buildings clustered on the rocky ridge. Dark brown plumes of smoke billow from a high steeple, probably a church and bell tower, and a bright light, possibly fire, illuminates the structure from behind. To our left, what first looks like a conical structure turns out to have a pink nose and eyes peeking out from what may be an overturned teacup being worn like a hat. More crowds and creatures line the shore of the river that winds away from us, around a peninsula, and into the distant horizon, which comes about halfway up this painting. The surface of the water has a pearly, opalescent sheen. White clouds swirl across a bright blue sky, as if they were waves in the sea. Incongruously, a group of spindly, insect-like creatures gathers in the sky riding fish or boats.

Media Options

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Legends of Anthony Abbot relate how the pious early Christian, forsaking society, journeyed into the wilderness to seek God. Anthony appears twice in this painting; in his foreground retreat, he resists the Devil's manifold temptations. After failing to yield to the evil lures, he is shown again being physically tortured while carried aloft by demons. Yet, the saint was saved by the purity of his soul.

The religious subject is presented in a revolutionary fashion; generations of earlier artists had tended to treat landscape as an unobtrusive backdrop of secondary importance, whereas now the landscape dominates the subject to such an extent that the temptation of Saint Anthony seems only incidental. This change of emphasis marks an important advance toward the development of pure landscape painting, in which Pieter Bruegel the Elder was an instrumental figure. Already, that delight in the natural world is apparent here in the shadowy depths of leafy forests, contrasting with open vistas of waterways, villages, and towns bathed in pearly light.

Perhaps the juxtaposition of a peaceful landscape with the temptations and attacks of demons was a subtle statement by this Bruegel follower on the political and moral brutalities of his time. Possibly Saint Anthony is meant allegorically to represent Everyman caught up in a world gone mad.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Early Netherlandish Painting, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/early-netherlandish-painting.pdf

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 41

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 58.5 x 85.7 cm (23 1/16 x 33 3/4 in.)
    framed: 77.8 x 104.8 x 7.6 cm (30 5/8 x 41 1/4 x 3 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.2.19

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Private collection, Brussels. (Robert Frank, London, by 1935);[1] on consigment from 1937 with (M. Knoedler & Co., New York; joint purchase 1945 with (Pinakos [Rudolf Heinemann);[2] purchased 1950 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1952 by exchange to NGA.
[1] The corresponding entry in Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles. Cinq Siècles d'Art (Brussels, 1935, no. 151, as Pieter Brueghel the Elder) states that before being acquired by Frank, the painting was in Brussels in the collection of an unnamed aristocrat. On the reverse are: an illegible stamp, possibly an Austrian customs stamp; a paper sticker, "Cinq Siècles d'Art (Bruxelles 1935)"; and a paper sticker, "Exposition De Van Eyck."
[2] Knoedler commission book no. 3, p. 87, stock book no. 9, p. 96, and sales book no. 16, p. 251, no. A3127, M. Knoedler & Co. Records, Getty Research Institute copies NGA curatorial files).
[3] Both The Baltimore Museum of Art, An Exhibition of Paintings by Living Masters of the Past, 1943, no. 9; and Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian, Oxford, 1977, p. 95; list Countess Montblanc, Belgium, as owner of the painting, but this is otherwise unverified. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2303.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1935

  • De Van Eyck à Bruegel, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1935, no. 16, as Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

  • Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles. Cinq Siécles d'Art, Brussels, 1935, no. 151, as Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

1943

  • An Exhibition of Paintings by Living Masters of the Past, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1943, no. 9, as Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

1944

  • 8 Masterpieces of Painting, Portland Art Museum, Oregon, 1944, not paginated, as Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

1948

  • Themes and Variations in Painting and Sculpture, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1948, no. 98, as Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Bibliography

1924

  • Friedländer, Max J. Die altniederländische Malerei 14 vols. 1924-1937. Leiden, 1937: 14:11-12, 58, no. 5, pl. 5. (English ed., 14 vols., 1967-1976. Leiden, 1976: 14:18, 42, no. 5, pl. 5.)

1932

  • Glück Gustav. Bruegels Gemälde. Vienna, 1937: 15-16, 27, 40, no. 6a. repro.

1935

  • Friedländer, Max J. "Review of Bruegel's Gemälde by Gustav Glück." The Burlington Magazine 67 (1935): 90.

  • Glück, Gustav. "Über einige Landschaftsgemälde Pieter Bruegels des Älteren." Jb Wien N.F. 9 (1935): 151-157, 161-162, pl. 3, 154, fig. 105.

  • Puyvelde, Leo van. "Zwei Gemälde von Pieter Bruegel d.Ä." Pantheon 15 (1935): 47-50, repros. 47, 49, facing 47.

  • Tolnay, Charles de. Pierre Bruegel l'Ancien. Brussels, 1935: 96, no. 54.

1936

  • Glück Gustav. Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Paris, 1936: 11, 23, no. 3, repro.

  • Glück Gustav. Das Bruegel Buch. Vienna, 1936: 9-10, no. 4, repro. (Also eds. 1941, 1951).

1937

  • Raczynski, Joseph Alexander. Die flämische Landschaft vor Rubens. Frankfurt, 1937: 53.

1938

  • Jedlicka, Gotthard. Pieter Bruegel. Der Maler in seiner Zeit. Erlenbach, 1938: 540.

  • Wetering, Cornelis van de. Die Entwicklung der niederländischen Landschaftsmalerei vom Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts bis zur Jahrhundertmitte. Berlin, 1938: 66, pl. 456.

1951

  • Frankfurter, Alfred. "Washington: Celebration Evaluation." Art News 50 (April, 1951): 31, 62, repro.

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 204, no. 90., repro., as Landscape with the Temptation of St. Anthony Abbot.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred. "Interpreting Masterpieces. Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News 50 (1951): 115-116, repro. 110.

1952

  • Castelli, Enrico. Il Demoniaco nell'Arte. Milan and Florence, 1952: 67, 69, pl. 42.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual 16 (1952): 115-116, repro. 110.

1953

  • Genaille, Robert. Brugel l'Ancien. Paris, 1953: 82, pl. 51.

1954

  • Hoogewerff, G.J. Het Landschap van Bosch tot Rubens. Antwerp, 1954: 48-49.

1956

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 38, repro., as Landscape with the Temptation of Saint Anthony Abbot by Bruegel.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 136.

1959

  • Delevoy, Robert. Bruegel. Geneva, 1959: 31-32, 39, repro.

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 291, repro., as by Pieter Bruegel, the Elder.

1960

  • Broadley Hugh T. Flemish Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 5 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 8, 32-33, color repro.

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 6.

1961

  • Denis, Valentin. All the Paintings of Pieter Bruegel. New York, 1961: 45.

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 92, repro. pl. 84, color repro. pl. 85.

1962

  • Puyvelde, Leo van. La peinture flamande au siècle de Bosch et Breughel. Paris, 1962: 118, 132, pl. 40.

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 76, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 128, repro. 129.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 21, as by Pieter Bruegel, the Elder.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:100-101, color repro., as by Pieter Bruegel, the Elder.

1968

  • Klein, H. Arthur, and Mina Klein. Peter Bruegel the Elder. Artist of Abundance. New York, 1968: 184.

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 14, repro., as by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 112-113, color repro.

1969

  • Classens, Bob, and Jeanne Rousseau. Our Bruegel. Antwerp, 1969: 229-230, fig. 7.

  • Roberts-Jones, Philippe. Bruegel, le peintre et son monde. Brussels, 1969: 47, no. 5, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue (National Gallery of Art). Washington, 1975: 116-117, repro., as by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: fig. 191.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 93-96, figs. 91-92, as Landscape with the Temptation of St. Anthony Abbot, Attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. "Completing the Account." Review of Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, London 1977. Times Literary Supplement no. 3927 (17 June 1977).

1980

  • Unverfehrt, Gerd. Hieronymus Bosch: Die Rezeption seiner Kunst im frühen 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1980: 184.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 70, repro.

1986

  • Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 29-33, repro. 31.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 47, repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 120-121, no. 91, color repro.

2008

  • Vanwijnsberghe, Dominique et. al. Autor de la Madeleine Renders. Brussels, 2008: 259, no. 210, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q11751420

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