The Temptation of St Anthony

I have discovered that Dali's painting and others were painted as part of a competition!

Max Ernst was in fact the $3,000 prizewinner in this "Temptation of St. Anthony" contest. The sponsors of the contest appear to have been a movie company and they persuaded 12 artists to paint what they thought St. Anthony saw. This winning picture was used in a movie, Bel Ami or The History of a Scoundrel and strangely had nothing to do with St. Anthony. Runners-up included Belgian Paul Delvaux; Ivan Le Lorraine Albright; and of course Salvador Dali.

There is a long history of paintings on this subject and the monsterbrains blog has excellent information and links. (here) I've always had an interest in St Anthony/Antony not just because he is my namesake but I suspect because of his asceticism. As an introvert, solitude is something I desire and yet it is the deepest battle requiring great exertion of will. They say the closer you get to God the more you are target for the Devil and temptations. Wikipedia has a nice summary of Athanasius' biography. (here)