The Temptation of Saint Anthony

Hieronymus Bosch died in 1516, and almost at once his tormented saints and swarming demons became a commodity. Collectors across the Netherlands wanted them, and there were nowhere near enough genuine Bosch panels to go round. This Temptation of Saint Anthony was painted around 1525 by someone working closely in his manner, close enough that for a long time such panels passed simply as Bosch. Anthony was a 3rd-century Egyptian hermit who went into the desert to pray and, the story went, was besieged there by devils in every shape. That licensed the painter to crowd the world around him with hybrid creatures and small burning scenes. The panel hangs in Utrecht, catalogued now under an anonymous follower who had learned his monsters by heart.