Updated 07 March 2025
On Display Permanent collection
On Display
The Temptation of St. Anthony
| Materials and Techniques | oil on canvas |
|---|---|
| Size（cm） | 80 x 110 |
| Inscriptions | Signed below in the middle: D. TENIERS. FEC |
| Credit Line | Purchased |
| Category | Paintings |
| Collection Number | P.1991-0002 |
While St. Anthony the Abbot was living as a hermit in the desert, the Devil sent temptations to test his faith. The white-haired saint is gazing toward a woman dressed in white, an incarnation of Lust. Seeking to seduce him, she holds out a goblet. The skull and hourglass beside St. Anthony represent vanitas (Vanity), while the crucifix and Bible symbolize salvation. They can be understood to point up the choice between worldliness and eternal life. The painter David Teniers was active in Antwerp in the mid to late seventeenth century. (Source: Gallery label, July 2016)
Provenance
Coll. Scheneick, München; Karl Lengle, Frankfurt; Sotheby's, London, 3 April 1985, no. 68 (not purchased); Deborah Gage, London; Purchased by the NMWA, 1991.
Exhibition History
- 1996
- The Crossing Visions: European and Modern Japanese Art from the Collections of The National Museum of Western Art & The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 20 July 1996 - 8 September 1996, cat. no. 76
- 2014
- Voices Calling from the Unusual: Hirano Keiichiro's Selection of Western Art Masterpieces, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 8 April 2014 - 15 June 2014, cat. no. 10
- 2017
- [Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017] Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: From the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, 22 April 2017 - 2 July 2017, Akita Museum of Modern Art, 15 July-18 September, cat. no. 75
- 2023
- Villains in the Frame, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 27 June 2023 - 3 September 2023, cat. no. 24
Bibliography
- 1994
- Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. Nos. 25-26 (April 1990-March 1992), 1994, Nakamura, Toshiharu. New Acquisitions. David Ⅱ Teniers, 《The Temptation of St. Anthony》. pp. 12-14, List of New Acquisitions. p. 48, col. repr.
- 2006
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 31, col. repr.
- 2009
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 31, col. repr.
- 2013
- Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 44, col. repr.
- 2017
- Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: from the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017 (exh. cat.). Nakada, Asuka, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2017, pp. 105, 141, cat. no. 75, col. repr.
- 2018
- Kofuku, Akira. Catalogue of Dutch and Flemish Paintings, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. [Tokyo], The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; The Western Art Foundation, 2018, pp. 98-99, no. 27, col. repr.