. Sacred and legendary art . otesque forms; suchare the pictures of Teniers, who had such a predilection forthis subject, that he painted it twelve times with every varietyof uncreated abominations. Such are the poetical demoniacscenes of Breughel; such is the famous print by Callot, ofwhich the original picture is at Malahide Castle, near a picture by Salvator Kosa, a single gigantic demon bestridesthe prostrate saint like a horrid nightmare. In a picture byRibera, the demon, in female shape, has seized on the bell, andrings it in his ears to interrupt his prayers. The description i
. Sacred and legendary art . otesque forms; suchare the pictures of Teniers, who had such a predilection forthis subject, that he painted it twelve times with every varietyof uncreated abominations. Such are the poetical demoniacscenes of Breughel; such is the famous print by Callot, ofwhich the original picture is at Malahide Castle, near a picture by Salvator Kosa, a single gigantic demon bestridesthe prostrate saint like a horrid nightmare. In a picture byRibera, the demon, in female shape, has seized on the bell, andrings it in his ears to interrupt his prayers. The description inthe legend has been closely followed in the picture by AnnibalCaracci, now in our National Gallery. I recollect a picture in which St. Anthony is tempted bythree beautiful women, who have much the air of opera-dancers, long and thin, in scanty draperies ; one pulls his beard,another twitches his robe, a third gazes up in his face ; the mis-erable saint, seated on the ground, with a look of intense suf- 736 THE HERMIT SAINTS. Temptation of St. Anthony (Martin Schoen) fering, and his hands clenched in prayer, seems to have sethimself to endure : mocking demons fill the air behind. The locality of the temptation of St. Anthony ought to bethe interior of an Egyptian sepulchre or temple. The legendrelates that he took refuge in a rui7i; and the painters, unfa-miliar with those grand and solemn and gigantic remains which ST. ANTHONY AND ST. PAUL, HERMITS 737 would have given a strange sublimity to the fearful scene,sometimes make the ruin an old brick house or Gothic chapel. Other subjects from the life of St. Anthony occur lessfrequently. By L. Caracci, we have St. Anthony instructing the her-mits. (Brera, Milan.) The death of St. Anthony, surrounded by his monks, is afrequent subject. Sometimes angels are seen carrying his soulinto heaven; in a picture by Bubens, the pig is seen lookingout from under the bed of the dying saint, — a grotesqueaccessory, which might well have been
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