_Annibale Carracci_ (Eclectic-Bologna: 1560-1609). _See 9._
The legend of the temptation of St. Anthony, here realistically set
forth, is the story of the temptations that beset the ascetic. In
the wilderness, brooding over sin, he is tempted; it is only when he
returns to the world and goes about doing good that the temptations
cease to trouble him. St. Anthony lived, like Faust, the life of
a recluse and a visionary, and like him was tempted of the devil.
"Seeing that wicked suggestions availed not, Satan raised up in his
sight (again like Mephistopheles in _Faust_) the sensible images of
forbidden things. He clothed his demons in human forms; they hovered
round him in the shape of beautiful women, who, with the softest
blandishments, allured him to sin." The saint in his distress resolved
to flee yet farther from the world; but it is not so that evil can
be conquered, and still "spirits in hideous forms pressed round him
in crowds, scourged him and tore him with their talons--all shapes
of horror, 'worse than fancy ever feigned or fear conceived,' came
roaring, howling, hissing, shrieking in his ears." In the midst of all
this terror a vision of help from on high shone upon him; the evil
phantoms vanished, and he arose unhurt and strong to endure. But it is
characteristic of the love of horror in the Bolognese School that in
Carracci's picture the celestial vision does not dissolve the terrors.