Landscape with the Temptation of Saint Anthony
By Roelandt Savery, 1617
Roelandt Savery painted this dense forest scene in 1617, and at first glance it seems to be all about the wilderness. Craggy cliffs rise up, a waterfall tumbles down the rocks, and tall dark trees crowd nearly every inch of the canvas. Hidden away on the left, near a shadowy cave, sits the real subject: Saint Anthony, an early Christian hermit who fled to the desert to pray alone. Legend says demons and temptations came to test him, and you can just make out the tiny saint surrounded by odd little creatures meant to shake his faith.
The Flemish artist behind this work had a deep love for rough, dramatic landscapes. Savery spent years at the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, where he sketched alpine scenery and grew fond of untamed, mountainous places. That fascination clearly won out here, since the holy story shrinks almost to nothing beside the towering rocks and thick woods. Painters of this era often treated religious figures as a small excuse to fill a picture with grand nature.
Birds drift across the gray, cloudy sky, and deer wander among the stones below. The whole scene carries a quiet reminder of just how tiny one person can seem against the enormous, wild power of the natural world.