Mattheus van Helmont (1623–1679) - The Temptation of Saint Anthony

Mattheus van Helmont (Anwerp 1623 - Brussels 1679)
Oil on canvas measures cm. 21 x 26
With frame measures cm. 34 x 39.5 cm

"The Temptation of Saint Anthony the Abbot"

Mattheus van Helmont, celebrated master of the Guild of St. Luke first in Antwerp (1645) and then in Brussels (1674), is known mainly for his lively genre scenes and scenes of peasant life. However, the artist also approached religious and allegorical themes with profound originality. In this work, van Helmont tackles a true topos of seventeenth century Flemish painting, a subject in which he demonstrates that he has fully assimilated the lessons of his great influences: David Teniers the Younger and David Ryckaert III. Compared to the language of Teniers who tended to "humanize" or sometimes make his witches and demons almost theatrical van Helmont's work on the temptations recovers a more archaic and dark matrix, directly linked to the fantasies and grotesque eccentricities of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel the Elder.
Our painting depicts the Temptation of Saint Anthony the Abbot, inside a rocky cave and is captured in a moment of severe psychological turmoil as he tries to concentrate on prayer to escape the tumult that surrounds him, but his posture denotes the fatigue in resistance while he is surrounded by demonic and grotesque creatures and even an elderly diabolical woman dressed in a purple jacket tries to push the Saint away from prayer while with her hand she points firmly downwards, in an attempt to divert the Saint's gaze from the sacred Scriptures. In the lower part and in the background emerge crawling and hybrid monsters and a hooded demon playing a wind instrument "an allusion to the chaos of sin and false pleasures" and also a reptilian creature with gaping jaws.
The palette plays on sharp and theatrical chiaroscuro contrasts, where the brown and muddy tones of the cave are pierced by the reddish and emaciated flashes of the demons' robes, emphasizing the spiritual and emotional isolation of the holy hermit.