October 3, 2012  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

In search of 'the devil in guise of a woman' in the history of the iconography of the Temptation of Saint Anthony

In the iconography of the Temptation of Saint Anthony, one frequently[1] encounters that the devil came to the saint in the guise of a woman. The earliest I have been able to trace of this 'devil disguised as a woman' is in the Master of the Osservanza Triptych[2]

I've been trying to trace the provenance of this woman, largely unsuccessfully.

The closest I came up with in early sources is this passage in the Caxton edition of The Golden Legend, which talks of the devil of fornication:

"On a time when he [Saint Anthony] had overcome the spirit of fornication, the devil came to him in the form of a little child all black, and fell down at his feet and confessed that he was the devil of fornication, which S. Anthony had desired and prayed to see him, for to know him that so tempted young people. Then said S. Anthony : ' Sith I have perceived that thou art so foul a thing, I shall never doubt thee.'" [3]

The first reference I found is in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers[4], which talks of demons taking the forms of women:

"[Demons] approach in different guise, and thenceforth shaping displays they attempt to strike fear, changing their shapes, taking the forms of women, wild beasts, creeping things, gigantic bodies, and troops of soldiers."[5]

Illustration: Isenheim Altarpiece[6] (no devil in the guise of a woman there), one of the icons of fantastic art and historically a pretext for prurience and violence in art.

A previous post on the Isenheim Altarpiece[7]. Here[8] is a collection of details from the temptation of Saint Anthony.

Seascape #17 (Two Tits) (1966). Oil on canvas. 60" x 72" by Tom Wesselmann.

Used on the cover of Avant Garde (magazine) issue 5

Image taken from the mysterious Codex99[9]

Hommage à l'Ecole de Fontainebleau by Lambert Maria Wintersberger

Used on the cover of Avant Garde (magazine) issue 14

The complete list of covers and contents can be found here[10]

Voor 1B en BVL blijft dit Ellen Gers, voor 1 en 2TSO is dit Karel Verelst. 3-4 TSO Sofie Verdeyen 5-6-7TSO en 7BSO Stef Goovaerts 3-4-5-6BSO Greet Beyens