The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Framed: 20 5/16 × 15 × 1 1/2 inches (51.59 × 38.1 × 3.81 cm)
- 106
Masterpiece of the Week, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, June 16, 1936, no cat.
Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism, Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 9, 1936-January 17, 1937, no. 14.
Five Years of Collecting, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, December 1938, no. cat.
Out of This World: Fantasy and Surrealist Art, Denver Art Museum, May 2-June 9, 1949, no cat.
Art Tells the Story, Schleier Gallery, Denver Art Museum, CO, March 1-April 26, 1953, unnumbered.
Renaissance Art, Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, MO, April 21-June 20, 1956, no cat.
The Disquieting Muse: Surrealism, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX, January 9-February 16, 1958, unnumbered.
Constant Companions, University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX, October 28, 1964-February 7, 1965, no. 113.
Hieronymus Bosch: Visions of a Genius, Het Noordbrabants Museum, Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, February 13-May 8, 2016, no. 45.
Bosch: the 5th centenary exhibition, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, May 31-September 25, 2016, no. 45.
What Lies Beneath: Rediscovering Hieronymus Bosch and Aelbrecht Bouts, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, June 30-January 6, 2019.
This fragment of a larger composition depicts an episode from St.
Anthony’s life. According to an early biography, the hermit saint retreated to
the Egyptian desert to lead a life of prayer. For years, visions sent by the
devil plagued him, but he remained steadfast in his faith. Here, several hybrid
monsters taunt the saint. A spoon-billed figure sits at a floating table laden
with food, while a fox-like creature balances an alcoholic beverage on its
head. The saint, however, resists the urge to indulge in the food and drink
offered to him.
With Ehrich Galleries, New York, by 1920;
With Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., New York, by November 18, 1927 [1];
Purchased from Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co. by Durlacher Brothers, New York, stock no. D.F.6, by April 1933-1935 [2];
Purchased from Durlacher by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.
NOTES:
[1] Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Durlacher Brothers Records, Box 4, Folder 16, Paid Invoices, S, 1923-1937.
[2] Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Durlacher Brothers Records, Box 26, Client Book, 1923-1940.
J. Nilsen Laurvik, Paintings by Old Masters, exh. cat. (The San Francisco Museum of Art, 1920), 22, (repro.), as by Hieronymus Bosch.
“The Temptation of Saint Anthony,” News Flashes (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 1, no. 12 (June 15-July 15, 1935), 1, as by Hieronymus Bosch.
“’Temptation of St. Anthony’ by Bosch Is Masterpiece of Week,” Kansas City Journal and Post (June 16, 1935): 45, (repro.), as by Hieronymus Bosch.
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., ed., Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, exh. cat. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1936), 71, 200, 247, (repro.), as attributed to Hieronymus Bosch.
Kansas City Star, December 25, 1936, clipping, NAMA curatorial files.
“Loans,” News Flashes (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 3, no. 3, (January 1, 1937): 3.
Charles de Tolnay, Hieronymus Bosch (Basel: Les Éditions Holbein, 1937), no. 61, p. 106, as a disputed work.
“Five Years of Collecting,” News Flashes (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 5, no. 2 (December 1, 1938), unpaginated.
“Special Exhibitions,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 7, no. 3 (December 1940), 1.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 167.
“Art Tells the Story,” special issue, Denver Art Museum Spring Quarterly (Spring 1953), unpaginated, (repro.), as by School of Bosch.
Jermayne MacAgy and Julien Levy, The Disquieting Muse, exh. cat. (Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, 1958), unpaginated, (repro.), as by School of Bosch.
Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 259, as attributed to Hieronymus Bosch.
Constant Companions: An Exhibition of Mythological Animals, Demons and Monsters, Phantasmal Creatures and Various Anatomical Assemblages, exh. cat. (Houston: University of Saint Thomas, 1964), unpaginated, as by School of Bosch.
Charles de Tolnay, Hieronymous Bosch, trans. Michael Bullock and Henry Mins (London: Methuen, 1966), no. 61, pp. 385, 425, 431, as a disputed work.
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., ed., Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, exh. cat., 3rd ed. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1966), 71, 247, (repro.), as attributed to Bosch.
Mia Cinotti, The Complete Paintings of Bosch (London: Harry N. Abrams, 1966), no. 41, p. 104, (repro.), as by workshop of Bosch.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 257, as attributed to Hieronymus Bosch.
Gerd Unverfehrt, Hieronymus Bosch: Die Rezeption seiner Kunst im frühen 16. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Mann, 1980), no. 34b, pp. 161, 256, (repro.), as by the Master of St. Anthony Drawing Water.
Frédéric Elsig, Jheronimus Bosch: la question de la chronologie (Geneva: Droz, 2004), 134, 218, 229, (repro.), as by the Master of the Temptation of St. Anthony.
Burton L. Dunbar, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: German and Netherlandish Paintings, 1450-1600 (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2005), 191-198, (repro.), as by workshop of Hieronymus Bosch.
Marc Rudolf de Vrij, Jheronimus Bosch: an exercise in common sense (Hilversum, NL: M.R.V., 2012/3), no. D13, pp. 533-34, as by workshop of Hieronymus Bosch.
Matthijs Ilsink and Jos Koldeweij, Hieronymus Bosch: Visions of a Genius, exh. cat. (Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2016), 150-153, 187, (repro.), as by Hieronymus Bosch.
Matthijs Ilsink et al., Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman: catalogue raisonné (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016), no. 3, pp. 132-39, (repro.), as by Hieronymus Bosch.
Luuk Hoogstede et. al, Hieronymus Bosch, Painter and Draughtsman: technical studies (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016), no. 3, pp. 50, 82-87, 455, (repro.), as by Hieronymus Bosch.
Pilar Silva Maroto, Bosch: the 5th centenary exhibition, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2016), 50, 54, 246-48, 254, 258, 359, (repro.), as by Hieronymus Bosch.
