The Temptation of St Anthony

Hieronymus Bosch died in 1516, and 40 years later his paintings were wanted more than ever. Philip II of Spain was collecting them, Netherlandish buyers wanted them too, and there were not enough to go round. Painters answered by inventing new scenes in his manner, reusing his monsters and his burning villages. This is one of those. The oak panel has been dated by its tree rings to 1551 or later, and the Rijksmuseum, which owns it, catalogues it as the work of someone painting in the manner of Bosch, somewhere between about 1550 and 1600.

In the lower right corner, on the bare ground beside the saint, it is signed "Jheronimus bosch". The signature is false, and the Rijksmuseum reads it as a sign the picture was sold as an original. Since November 2001 it has been on loan to the Noordbrabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch, the town where Bosch himself lived and worked.