The situation is escalating in James Ensor’s Tribulations of Saint Anthony as evil temptation abounds and devils defecate all around St. Anthony.

This 1887 painting is one of Ensor’s first paintings to slip into a more fantastical state. And it’s largely believed that the ten-year period of Ensor’s life kicked off by this painting were the ten most productive and inspired years of his career.

The painting is a bizarre though very apparent nod to Flemish artists like Hieronymus Bosch, who had done famous takes on Saint Anthony in the past. It does so by referencing similar-looking demons throughout the painting. The piece really takes the Saint in a new and crazy direction, depicting Saint Anthony as submerged in a large pile of manure, while around him is more garbage, naked women who are tempting him toward hell, and multiple devils defecating and preparing to perform an enema on him. The whole scene is nothing short of grotesque, but it was also completely wild, daring, and new for its time. Upon adding this painting to MOMA’s collection, the Director of the museum said that Ensor was “the boldest living painter” at the time of this painting’s completion.

St. Anthony, also known as St. Anthony Abbott, lived in Egypt from 251-356 C.E. and is best known for his steadfast practice and worship of God, even in the face of great temptation (see the above painting). At the age of twenty, he ditched all his worldly possessions and went to live an ascetic life as a hermit in the desert wilderness. He dwelt alone in an abandoned Roman fort near Pispur, and subsisted on food tossed over the wall to him. He sought seclusion and didn’t accept many visitors, but followers soon began popping up and living in nearby caves, creating a sort of hermit community. While there had been other hermit monks before him, St. Anthony’s extreme asceticism and secluded life in the wilderness contributed to his fame and became an inspiration for Christian Monasticism to follow. 

According to St. Anthony's hagiography by St. Athanasius, during Anthony’s sojourn in the desert, the Devil himself prepared a number of temptations for him. These temptations came in the form of beautiful women (naturally), terrifying demons, and blasphemous thoughts--all things that a creative artist would relish personifying in paint. And indeed, the psychology of St. Anthony’s temptation became of interest in the later Middle Ages and especially to Northern artists of the fifteenth century, for whom harsh landscapes crawling with demon beasties were something of a specialty. The story of the temptation of St. Anthony continued to have power even into the 20th century and beyond, with Surrealist artists like Max Ernst, Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington and more all taking a whack at the famous hermit and his tribulations.