The Temptation of Saint Anthony

Herri met de Bles painted this Temptation of Saint Anthony around 1550-60, a subject that allowed him to indulge his talent for elaborate, fantastical landscape compositions. Bles, known in Italy as "Civetta" (little owl) from the owl hidden in his paintings, was a Netherlandish painter who popularized panoramic landscape paintings filled with bizarre, imaginative elements. The Anthony theme, made famous by Bosch, was a vehicle for depicting both spiritual struggle and the wonders of the natural world.

Painted on wood, Bles creates a vast panoramic landscape filled with fantastical creatures and natural detail rendered with miniaturist precision. The blue-green atmospheric perspective recedes deep into the background, while the foreground teems with the inventive demonic figures that were his specialty.