The Temptation of St Anthony

Around 1500, the affliction people called Saint Anthony's Fire was a real dread across Europe. It came from a fungus that grew on damp rye, and bread milled from that grain could bring burning pain, gangrene that blackened fingers and toes, and violent hallucinations. A hospital order named for the saint cared for the sufferers, and Anthony, the hermit who had withdrawn into the Egyptian desert to pray, became their protector. This small panel sets him at the heart of that legend, hemmed in by grotesque monsters, part beast and part man, the kind of shapes a fevered mind throws up. A devotional picture like this was meant to be prayed before, up close. It carries the name of Hieronymus Bosch, though some scholars see the hand of a follower working in his manner rather than the master himself.