Martin Schongauer, Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons

Art Analysis

Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons

 

For my analysis, have chosen an art piece from one of the greatest engravers of the 14 hundred, Martin Schongauer.

It is called "Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons" and it was engraved into a wooden block. It was created in Colmar, which is now a town in France, but used to be a part of Germany between 1470 and 1475. I love this so much because of the details he was able to create, and it just appeals to me for some unknown reason. One reason might be, because I am German and just love the European history, especially the renaissance times and anything before this period.

First, a little bit more about the artist, Martin Schongauer, who was a German artist and lived from 1450 to 1491. He was, like I already mentioned, considered to be the greatest engraver to this times, before the great Albrecht Durer, which is a little more well known, but was not born until 1471. Obviously, they still had to wait for him to get out of his diapers, as if they had diapers to those times.

But back to the relevant topic. This work of art was so influential, that even Michelangelo made a color painting of the work at the age of thirteen, which I think is very impressive and worth mentioning.

 

I do still prefer the original piece from Schongauer over the colorful copy. To create this much detail onto a wooden block cannot be easy and here are some examples of what I mean:

                                

 

 

The dragon like creatures’ head to the right, seems to have an Asian touch to it and reminds me very much of the Chinese dragons. Some of the others come close to it as well and for some reason, I would not have thought that this work was this old, if I would not know better. Some of the demons look like they are from more modern comic books.

The main character, Saint Anthony was a catholic priest from Portugal and lived from 1195 to 1231. It is said that the devil spoke to him, and demons aggravated him, but he ignored them and instead of listening, he prayed and preached. I believe that this work of art is about this, and you can clearly see how the demon’s bug, beat, and pull on him, while he is ignoring it. 

The piece has some flow to it, and it is all arranged in a circular shape. The shading work is great and in the late-Gothic style. 

Michelangelo added landscape and color to his version of the art piece. The colors are very dark, and it all seems to be a little too much and too crowded in my eyes. I personally like the simpler style of the original engravement work, which allows us to see the details clearer compared to the copy. 

I would love to own a print of this piece of art, but I do not think that our house would be a good place to display it, since I have two small children who are naturally curious. I am sure they would come up with a lot of questions about the existent nudity. It is clearly fantasy based, however, it could possibly be a cause of nightmares for such little busy brains. 

Thank you for reading and stay safe,

 

Sylvia

 

Introduction

 

 Hi there, 

I am glad that you are stopping by and I hope you can enjoy what I have to say, which might not be as mind blowing as some stories of other blog creator. If it brightens up your day or makes you question all your (or my) life decisions, I know I have done my job and hope it can at least be a good time filler during those difficult times. Leave me some comments, productive once are being preferred, but anything will be appreciated. Be real and honest and do not hold back. I will not be offended but you might end up with a juicy response.

 

Now back to getting to the actual point of my post. My name is Sylvia and I am happily married to a wonderful veteran with whom I have 2 beautiful children. We all live happily in North Pole with 3 fur babies, multiple gill babies and a couple feather friends in a way too small house. Last year in March, I had the genius idea to quit my Management job to home-school our 9 year old daughter. Which did not go too well but provided us with an ultimate amount of experience, wisdom and a new found appreciation of all teachers. The humorous part is, that this made me for some reason start my Bachelor Degree to become an elementary teacher. The only request I have is to not have my own children as my students and I am sure that I just received a few sympathy points from you mom's and dad's out there. 

 

As soon as we heard that the schools are back open again here in North Pole, we decided that it is time for our lovely daughter to go back in person and fast forward to today, since life likes to play a prank on us once in a while, I ended up back in my old job a few weeks ago and am now again the Manager of a Tour guiding company in town while finishing my college degree. I love this job, which made this decision a whole lot easier. 

 I do like art but aren't grown up enough to own any actual art pieces. However, I love crafting and creating art but never really find the time to actually bring my ideas to life. This will hopefully change in the future and I hope that my new carrier path gets me to appreciate it more. My favorite local artist is Amanda Rose Warren, which I am sure most of you are familiar with. 

Here is my favorite piece from her

The reason, why I love her style so much is, because of the kind of colors she is using and how different her style is compared to other artists. That she is a local is definitely a plus and if I could, i would buy all her creations.

The radio station KWHL wrote a great article about Amanda and her art which can be found right here:       

 https://www.kwhl.com/shows/amanda-rose-warren/ 

 

 Thank you for reading,

 Sincerely,

 Sylvia