The Temptation of St Anthony

CŽzanne completed three paintings on the theme of the temptation of St Anthony. This version is CŽzanne’s last known working of a subject that had often been represented since the time of Hieronymous Bosch and also described by many nineteenth-century writers. During a period when most of CŽzanne’s works dealt with erotic subjects and murders, this conventional scene appears to be a representation of the mastering of the sexual conflicts that beset the painter at this time. The temptress, who is placed in the centre of the picture, unveils herself with a triumphant gesture, but she is standing some distance from the hermit, unlike another version of the scene, in which she assails him relentlessly. The devil, who appears on the left of the composition, seems to be playing a dual role: he is inciting the temptress as well as, paradoxically, appearing to be the protector to whom the saint clings. A circle of cherubs gives the work the lightness of spirit of an eighteenth-century scne galante. In this painting, the woman, an object of both adoration and fear, does not seem to be the absolute corrupter of the earlier versions. She has something of a classical goddess about her as well as prefiguring a bather.