Lelio Orsi

The Temptation of Saint Anthony
- (ca. 1570s), oil on canvas
- 17.4 x 14.3 in. (44.1 x 36.4 cm.)
- J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
- 400 x 495 (25 KB)
Editor’s Note:
In this work featured here, grotesque monsters lurk in the shadows and slowly emerge to taunt Saint Anthony who remains unperturbed, and reads his meditations as his companion pig sits at his side.
The painting above was most likely copied by the Flemish engraver Boetius Adams Bolswert (1580 - 1633) for plate no.4 in the first series in the book, 'Sylva Anachoretica Aegypti et Palaestinae' (Antwerp: Hendrik Aerts, 1619).