The Temptations of St. Anthony the Abbot

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Download hi-res image TITLE The Temptations of St. Anthony the Abbot
AUTHOR Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
DATE 1724 - 5
OBJECT TYPE AND MATERIAL Oil on canvas
DIMENSIONS cm 40 x 47
INVENTORY 5969
ROOM XXXV
Work on display

Tiepolo painted this youthful work before being summoned to decorate the Bishop’s Palace in Udine in 1726. The fantastical landscape is a figment of his clearly very fertile imagination. The aged monk attempts to shield himself behind a huge book, warding off the temptation – in the shape of a beautiful, naked young woman – being ushered before him by a devil with bat’s wings. Tiepolo turns the Bible story into an allegory of the seasons of life, conferring an almost secular character on the scene.