Anthony the Great
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Featured:  Illustration: Portrait fantaisiste du marquis de Sade (1866) by H. Biberstein |
Saint Anthony (c 251–356) was a Christian monk who fled to the Egyptian desert in order to escape religious persecution. He is a prominent leader among the Desert Fathers.
The biography by Athanasius of Alexandria, Life of Antony, helped to spread the concept of monasticism. In Catholicism he is associated with pigs. Many visual artists have depicted these incidents from the life of Saint Anthony; in prose, the tale was retold and embellished by Gustave Flaubert.
Temptation
Famously, Anthony is said to have faced a series of supernatural temptations during his pilgrimage to the desert. The first to report on the temptation was his contemporary Athanasius of Alexandria. However, some modern scholars have argued that the demons and temptations that Anthony is reported to have faced may have been related to Athanasius by some of the simpler pilgrims who had visited him, who may have been conveying what they had been told in a manner more dramatic than it had been conveyed to them. It is possible these events, like the paintings, are full of rich metaphor or in the case of the animals of the desert, perhaps a vision or dream. Some of the stories included in Saint Anthony's biography are perpetuated now mostly in paintings, where they give an opportunity for artists to depict their more lurid or bizarre interpretations.
See also
- The Temptation of St. Anthony (theme in the visual arts)
- The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Flaubert)
- Life of Antony (Pope Athanasius I of Alexandria)
