Artwork Page for The Temptation of St. Anthony

Details / Information for The Temptation of St. Anthony

The Temptation of St. Anthony

1506

Lucas Cranach

(German, 1472–1553)
Culture
Germany
Medium
woodcut
Credit Line
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1945.340
Catalogue raisonné
Hollstein 76
State
II/II
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

The group of demonic figures attacking Saint Anthony was inspired by the Martin Schongauer engraving of the same subject from about 1475, though the extensive landscape is a fine example of Cranach's individual style. The Temptation of Saint Anthony has possible connections to the Chancellor of Wittenberg University, Goswin von Orsoy (1450-1515), who was also the preceptor of the Antonite monastery at nearby Lichtenburg. The group of buildings in the scene may represent this monastery, which was later destroyed; the monastery also owned a chapel in Wittenberg where there was an altarpiece of Saint Anthony.
A vertically oriented print in dense black-inked fine lines depicts a bearded man in heavy robes being hoisted into the air by winged, horned, and beaked monsters. Below this central struggle, a landscape unfolds with a riverside town and mountains. To the right, a gnarled tree trunk stands beside a rocky opening. In the lower-left corner, a monogram appears on the ground near the edge of the print.

The Temptation of St. Anthony

1506

Lucas Cranach

(German, 1472–1553)
Germany

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