Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

These two scenes depict St. Anthony’s temptation. He was a third century desert hermit in Egypt who was credited as the founder of Christian monasticism. In the image on the left, Anthony is seated, holding a Bible and a rosary. He looks up at what appears to be a beautiful woman offering him a golden chalice. She is elegantly dressed, and looks human, except for her clawed feet which signal a demonic presence. St. Anthony’s iconographic swine peeks out at the devil. In the second illumination, Anthony returns to his desert hut. As he approaches his dwelling, he turns around to discover a young woman standing behind him. Her pink wings, folded behind her back, signal that she is actually a demon. In this illumination, Anthony is haloed.

In her work on monastic masculinity, Jacqueline Murray asserts that many medieval monks retained their masculine identities by portraying themselves as heroic warriors locked in combat with intense bodily desires. Murray’s work offers insight into how St. Anthony functions as a symbol of chaste monastic masculinity: even in the face of repeated temptation, Anthony combats his needs for pleasure and comfort, to triumph over the devil’s seductive invitation. Anthony’s hard-fought victory portrays a type of male strength that monks pursued, and was viewed by many as manly within a system that excluded them from displaying traditional markers of masculinity.

The image on the left was painted by Lieven van Lathem in a small prayer book made for Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy (1467-1477). Every page is decorated, and the book features thirty-seven large miniatures. Van Lathem worked for numerous noble patrons in Flanders. His illustrations are characterized by vivid colors, an emphasis on bright light and inviting landscapes with pruned trees and splendid churches. The image on the right was painted by the Sienese artist known as the Master of the Osservanza and is one of eight surviving altarpiece panels dedicated to St. Anthony. The panels are scattered in museums in the United States (Metropolitan Museum, National Gallery of Art and Yale) and in Berlin (Staatliche Museen). Scholars see Florentine influence in the artist's work and praise his narrative innovations and treatment of landscape. Various artists have been suggested as the Master of the Osservanza, but current thinking inclines toward the young Sano di Pietro.

Both of the illuminations depict Saint Anthony garbed in the black robe of the Hospitallers, a medieval order that adopted Anthony as their patron saint. The order established hospitals to treat the sick and poor, particularly in cities. The order had the permission of the Pope to raise swine as a method of supporting their organization. Townspeople would donate the runts of the litters to the Hospitallers, who would then release the pigs into the city where they would thrive by begging. When grown, the Hospitallers would slaughter them for pork and lard. As a result of this, Saint Anthony is often depicted with a porcine companion.