Lot Essay
Cézanne treated the theme of La Tentation de Saint Antoine several times in his oeuvre, demonstrating that the subject exercised a considerable fascination for him. The first appearance is in the large Baroque picture painted in his "black manner" of circa 1870 (Venturi 103, Bührle Collection, Zurich). The theme was then taken up with several pencil studies and two oil paintings (the present work, and Venturi 241. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, formerly also in the Pellerin Collection) dating from circa 1873-75. In treating this subject Cézanne was placing himself squarely in the mainstream of French art, for it was a popular subject with Romantic artists of the early 19th Century. But, as usual, Cézanne has rendered the subject in an entirely novel and challenging manner in which he reveals elements of his own obsessions and character.
The story of the temptation of St. Anthony in the desert provided the Second Empire artists such as Tassaert, Delaroche and Morot with a religious cover for what was essentially a seduction scene. However, it may not have been the example of these artists which was important for Cézanne's own inspiration but rather the recounting of the story by Flaubert. Flaubert's version first appeared in the magazine L'Artiste, which Cézanne is known to have read and studied, in 1856-57. But the composition of Cézanne's first La Tentation de Saint Antoine (Venturi 103) does not allude specifically to the Flaubert text, seeming to be based more on archetypal Judgement of Paris compositions. In it the actual temptation of St. Anthony is reduced to a marginal incident at the left of the canvas. The picture has a pervasive mood of dark violence which reflected the fantasies about women which pre-occupied the youthful Cézanne.
The two later versions (the present picture and Venturi 241) exhibit a new conception and maturity of thought which has moved on from that shown in the Bührle picture. However, the central theme of the temptation of the solitary monk by a naked woman remains of crucial relevance to Cézanne's own feelings of solitude, abstinence and his awareness of the fickleness of human flesh. As Theodore Reff observes, these two later pictures show a much closer knowledge of the episode in Flaubert's text, "When Sheba, a fabulous oriental princess offering a life of endless luxury and sensual pleasure, first appears to the hermit, "douze négrillons crépus portent la longue queue de sa robe, dont un singe tient l'extremité qu'il soulève de temps a temps a autre"; and when, later in the scene, she suddenly whistles a command, "un grand oiseau, qui descend du ciel, vient s'abattre sur le sommet de sa chevelure" it is easy to see why Cézanne was attracted to this passage; while not the only incident of carnal temptation it is by far the most suggestive in this bizarre blend of magic, opulence and sexual allusion" (T. Reff, op.cit., p. 121). Cézanne has turned Flaubert's princess into a naked temptress, an identity heightened by the appearance of apples on the ground hinting at love's fruit, a classical concept drawn from Philomenes Imagines. Flaubert's bird appears by the tree and, in an innovation all his own, Cézanne has introduced the red-dressed figure of the devil who solicits Anthony's attention as he tries to ward off the vision of the temptress. It is uncertain to the viewer whether the appearance of the temptress is real or if it is only in the mind of the Saint.
As is common in many of Cézannes figurative pictures from this period he identified closely with the protagonists of his pictures. In La Tentation de Saint Antoine Cézanne, with his own fears of contact with the opposite sex, saw himself as St. Anthony. The fact that it is probably a self-portrait is affirmed by Cézanne's brief inscription on a preparatory watercolour (Rewald 40) "à ma seduction de mon corps éclatant vois la carnation Antoine, et ne résiste à la seduction." Cézanne made a number of preparatory drawings of the subject (Chappuis 444-450) of which no. 448 is the most complete. The oil painting shows a greater refinement as Cézanne incorporates all the elements in a more harmonious and spatially coherent form.
In the other version (Venturi 241), which he appears to have worked on concurrently, Cézanne has returned to a more darker, threatening palette as opposed to the brighter tonalities of the present picture. The figure of the temptress has been moved to the centre of the composition and the now baldheaded saint has been turned to the side in a more submissive posture. The bird, present in Flaubert's text and the present picture, is no longer included. The emphasis is on the nude woman whose pose, as Reff points out, "repeats almost exactly one of the caryatids in Marcantonio's [Raimondi] engraving The Incense Burner, a decorative ensemble whose interlocking forms account also for such unresolved features of Cézanne's figure as the raised right arm and reversed left hand. Of the several copies of this print, usually of this figure alone, contained in his sketchbooks, at least two are datable before 1880 on visual evidence; as is the case of numerous other derivations in his figure painting, these were the obvious means of transmission".
It appears that Auguste Pellerin owned all the three oil paintings by Cézanne of La Tentation de Saint Antoine (Venturi 103, 240, 241).
The story of the temptation of St. Anthony in the desert provided the Second Empire artists such as Tassaert, Delaroche and Morot with a religious cover for what was essentially a seduction scene. However, it may not have been the example of these artists which was important for Cézanne's own inspiration but rather the recounting of the story by Flaubert. Flaubert's version first appeared in the magazine L'Artiste, which Cézanne is known to have read and studied, in 1856-57. But the composition of Cézanne's first La Tentation de Saint Antoine (Venturi 103) does not allude specifically to the Flaubert text, seeming to be based more on archetypal Judgement of Paris compositions. In it the actual temptation of St. Anthony is reduced to a marginal incident at the left of the canvas. The picture has a pervasive mood of dark violence which reflected the fantasies about women which pre-occupied the youthful Cézanne.
The two later versions (the present picture and Venturi 241) exhibit a new conception and maturity of thought which has moved on from that shown in the Bührle picture. However, the central theme of the temptation of the solitary monk by a naked woman remains of crucial relevance to Cézanne's own feelings of solitude, abstinence and his awareness of the fickleness of human flesh. As Theodore Reff observes, these two later pictures show a much closer knowledge of the episode in Flaubert's text, "When Sheba, a fabulous oriental princess offering a life of endless luxury and sensual pleasure, first appears to the hermit, "douze négrillons crépus portent la longue queue de sa robe, dont un singe tient l'extremité qu'il soulève de temps a temps a autre"; and when, later in the scene, she suddenly whistles a command, "un grand oiseau, qui descend du ciel, vient s'abattre sur le sommet de sa chevelure" it is easy to see why Cézanne was attracted to this passage; while not the only incident of carnal temptation it is by far the most suggestive in this bizarre blend of magic, opulence and sexual allusion" (T. Reff, op.cit., p. 121). Cézanne has turned Flaubert's princess into a naked temptress, an identity heightened by the appearance of apples on the ground hinting at love's fruit, a classical concept drawn from Philomenes Imagines. Flaubert's bird appears by the tree and, in an innovation all his own, Cézanne has introduced the red-dressed figure of the devil who solicits Anthony's attention as he tries to ward off the vision of the temptress. It is uncertain to the viewer whether the appearance of the temptress is real or if it is only in the mind of the Saint.
As is common in many of Cézannes figurative pictures from this period he identified closely with the protagonists of his pictures. In La Tentation de Saint Antoine Cézanne, with his own fears of contact with the opposite sex, saw himself as St. Anthony. The fact that it is probably a self-portrait is affirmed by Cézanne's brief inscription on a preparatory watercolour (Rewald 40) "à ma seduction de mon corps éclatant vois la carnation Antoine, et ne résiste à la seduction." Cézanne made a number of preparatory drawings of the subject (Chappuis 444-450) of which no. 448 is the most complete. The oil painting shows a greater refinement as Cézanne incorporates all the elements in a more harmonious and spatially coherent form.
In the other version (Venturi 241), which he appears to have worked on concurrently, Cézanne has returned to a more darker, threatening palette as opposed to the brighter tonalities of the present picture. The figure of the temptress has been moved to the centre of the composition and the now baldheaded saint has been turned to the side in a more submissive posture. The bird, present in Flaubert's text and the present picture, is no longer included. The emphasis is on the nude woman whose pose, as Reff points out, "repeats almost exactly one of the caryatids in Marcantonio's [Raimondi] engraving The Incense Burner, a decorative ensemble whose interlocking forms account also for such unresolved features of Cézanne's figure as the raised right arm and reversed left hand. Of the several copies of this print, usually of this figure alone, contained in his sketchbooks, at least two are datable before 1880 on visual evidence; as is the case of numerous other derivations in his figure painting, these were the obvious means of transmission".
It appears that Auguste Pellerin owned all the three oil paintings by Cézanne of La Tentation de Saint Antoine (Venturi 103, 240, 241).