Salvador Dali wrote many wonderful paintings, but "The Temptation of St. Anthony" stands apart. We will talk about this painting and the history of its creation in this article.
Leonora Carrington. The Temptation of St. Anthony
In 1945, director Albert Levin made the movie "The Private Affairs of a Lovely Friend" based on the famous novel "A Lovely Friend" by Guy de Maupassant. The plot of the novel revolved around the adventurer Georges Duroy, who was not distinguished by any talents, but thanks to the smarmy appearance could win the heart of any lady, and the lack of conscience and any moral principles in the end allowed him to achieve a very high position in society. In general, the character is not a pleasant one, but it is very revealing and, what's to say, realistic.
The creators of the movie offered 12 famous artists to write a painting based on the Christian tales of the temptation of St. Anthony.
Hieronymus Bosch. The Temptation of St. Anthony
According to them, Anthony at the age of 18 left home and became a hermit in the Egyptian desert. He had to endure many different temptations, which subjected him to Satan. He spent his life struggling with his own demons, but he did not give up his convictions, although it was very important for the demons to be able to tempt him, it would prove the inevitable power of Satan, which could not be resisted even by the most steadfast of people.
Dorothea Tanning. The Temptation of St. Anthony
One of the main temptations was the temptation of sensuality and the need for abstinence, which at the age of 18, understandably, akin to a real feat. But what space for artists to depict all the temptations and inner demons of Anthony himself, not by chance this subject was one of the most popular in painting.
Paul Delaroche. The Temptation of St. Anthony
Therefore, all the artists who were approached by the authors of the movie, gladly took up the artwork, good thing the theme was easy and interesting, leaving a lot of room for creativity. And fueled motivation fee of 2500 dollars for winning the contest, and 500 dollars, which in any case received the artist for the painting.
The winner was the artist Max Ernst and it was his painting for 8 seconds was shown in the movie. It is hard not to notice it - it is the only color in black and white film, and Ernst managed to depict chaos and demonic presence on the level of classic paintings by Hieronymus Bosch.
Max Ernst. The Temptation of St. Anthony
But why did not Dali win, his artwork is much better known all over the world than Max Ernst's? Perhaps the point is that Ernst took as a basis the canonical triptych by Bosch and reworked it according to his visions, but Dali did not imitate anyone and went his own original way. Instead of rocks and surrealistic landscape, there is an ordinary bare desert, which gives some authenticity to what is happening. For the surrealism and unusualness are the typical Dali elephants on thin legs and a horse standing up on the fringes, which are carrying the very gifts and temptations that will seduce the poor stoic Antony.
Salvador Dali. The Temptation of St. Anthony
And here everything becomes even more logical than in Ernst's painting. It is easy to resist temptation when you are surrounded by disgusting demons and monsters - any normal person would do so, but when you are offered exotic golden palaces in the desert, naked concubines, a life that only a true oriental lord can boast of - you need to have a lot of willpower and faith in your own beliefs.
And what do you think, whose painting about the temptations of St. Anthony is the most memorable and convincing - write in the comments
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