active 1508 - after 1548
Torment of St. Anthony
ca. 1515-20
Oil on panel
27-3/8 x 47 in.

St. Anthony, a Christian saint and hermit, gave his wealth to the poor when he was a young man. Living in solitude, he devoted himself to prayer but was tormented by the Devil in the form of demons and evil spirits.

Savoldo shows St. Anthony with his hands clasped in prayer, fleeing from a dark, hellish vision into a pastoral landscape bathed in warm daylight. Like other northern Italian painters of the time, Savoldo was interested in Flemish painting, particularly Hieronymous Bosch's nightmarish monsters, which influenced his depiction of St. Anthony's tormentors. As the saint flees, his hands point to a monastery, a reminder that he was the father of monasticism.