Temptation of St Anthony

This 1706 Temptation of Saint Anthony at the Hermitage depicts the Egyptian hermit's legendary battle with demons that made him the archetype of ascetic spiritual warfare. Anthony's wilderness retreat attracted demonic attack in the form of lascivious women, frightening beasts, and abstract spiritual terrors, and the subject provided painters with unusual freedom to depict the supernatural and the erotic within a devotional context. Ricci's version, one of multiple treatments of the subject by various hands at the Hermitage, brings his warm Venetian palette to this harsh subject, the demons given physical form through his fluid figure style.

The demonic temptations are rendered with vivid color and dynamic composition, Ricci's dramatic contrasts of light and dark creating a supernatural atmosphere within his characteristically warm Venetian palette.