The Temptation of Saint Anthony

Inside a rocky grotto, that is open to the left, the praying aged Saint is kneeling at a lectern of stone with crucifix. In front of him to the right two couples in love in courtly costumes, behind them a sleepng woman on a donkey and a drunken farmer with vine glass on a pig ride up followed by devils and beasts . In front of Antonius an old woman is weighing gold next to a dog-alike creature, from the left a witch with a long broom on a lion is riding up. In front of her another one lying with a torch and an apple. Up in the air between fighting monsters a bat, dragon and fishes are riding on fishes resp. birds. In right front a gullet with stone blocks with jar and bowl. Signed at the right bottom at block of stone: D Teniers f. G. R. Notes at backside: Auction Bourgeois Frères, Heberle Köln Nr. 85, also seal with Saint George. The painting appeared for the first time 1831 at an auction in London. Collection Charles Brind, London, where ist was registered by John Smith in 1844. Exhibition of old masters out of private property in Vienna, Vienna 1873, Nr. 168. Collection Chevalier de Lissingen, Auction Paris 1876, Nr. 44. Gallery Sedelmeyer, Paris. Collection Bourgeois frères Köln, Auction 1904, Nr. 85. Collection Otto Gerstenberg, Berlin. Literatur: John Smith, Catalogue raisonné, Sup. Band, Nr. 13. Source: Hugo Helbing Kunsthandlung and Kunstversteigerungshaus: Kunstbesitz eines Berliner Sammlers. Katalog Nr. 49.