The Temptations of Saint Anthony

Bosch died in 1516, and for much of the century that followed the ordinary way to own one of his pictures was to own a copy. His Temptation of Saint Anthony, the triptych now in Lisbon, was reproduced over and over, and Spanish collectors were among the most persistent buyers. Philip II bought Bosch panels steadily and sent one after another to El Escorial. This oak panel is one of those reductions. It brings a single wing of the Lisbon triptych down to 90 centimetres by 37 and alters small details along the way. The hermit kneels with an open book, trying to read, while obscene and monstrous visions press in around him, on the ground, over the water behind and through the air above. At the lower right the copyist lettered the master's name onto the panel, Jeronimus bosch. The Prado holds a second reduction of the same wing, catalogued as a painting of its own.