David Teniers the Younger had addressed the theme of the Temptation of St. Anthony by 1635 (see the painting in a private collection, exhibited at Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, David Teniers the Younger, May 11-Sept. 1, 1991, no.9) and returned to the subject repeatedly in his long career. The present painting is closest in style and conception to depictions of the theme from the artist's mature Antwerp period, for example, the painting dated 1647, formerly in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin (Inv. no. 859), and in the undated picture in the Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Inv. no. 1079 (see respectively in the 1991 exhibition catalogue, pp. 134-5, no. 41 and fig. 41a).

Since the Middle Ages, the ascetic St. Anthony assaulted by demons and temptresses had been celebrated as the paradigm of steadfast denial of vice and temptation. A Latin inscription on a print by Francois van den Wyngaerde after a drawing by Teniers in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes, which shares motifs and design elements with the present picture, is inscribed 'Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for he will be tried and receive the crown of life that God has promised to those that love Him' (translated by Margret Klinge, ibid., p. 46), a paraphrase of Psalms 34:19. To emphasize the pervasiveness of the various vices tempting humankind, Teniers even depicted the Temptation of Saint Anthony with the Seven Deadly Sins (private collection, ibid., p. 262, fig. 90a).

Having graced several outstanding collections of old masters, this painting repeatedly inspired praise from cataloguers, authors and connoisseurs (their remarks quoted above) for its refined detail, color, and spirited execution.

The painting is in a carved and gilded Demidoff frame, with pierced foliate scrolls, a raised inner edge of diapered panels and shields at the corners (for further examples see S. Duffy, loc. cit., p. 55, no. 18).