Landscape with the Temptation of Saint Anthony

Roelant Savery painted this Landscape with the Temptation of Saint Anthony in 1617, combining his specialty of detailed landscapes with a religious narrative. Savery, a Flemish painter who worked for the Habsburg court in Prague, was known for his fantastical landscapes populated with exotic animals and bizarre rock formations. The temptation of Saint Anthony provided a pretext for the kind of imaginative landscape that was his hallmark.

The painting combines detailed botanical and zoological observation with fantastical landscape elements. Savery's meticulous technique renders each plant and animal with naturalistic precision within an overall composition of dreamlike strangeness.