The Torment Of St. Anthony By Martin Schongauer

Michelangelo was an amazing artist. Working in a range of mediums from sculpting to painting, he established himself as a successful artist. When he was around 12-13 years-old he began to assist Domenico Ghirlandaio. Michelangelo studied his paintings and quickly moved towards sculpture. His first work however was a painted copy of an engraving by Martin Schongauer. Michelangelo painted the Torment of Saint Anthony in 1487-88. At a scale of 18 1/2 inches by 13 3/4 inches, he used oil and tempera to cover the wood panel. The beautiful piece of work is currently located in the Kimball Art Museum in Forth Worth, Texas. In the engraving Schongauer created it depicts a story of St. Anthony. During his life, St. Anthony went out to spread
Looking at the original engraving, Michelangelo altered some of the dimensions and shapes of the figures and rocks. He wanted to create a more naturalistic feeling to the demons, so he added different characteristics to appear as real animals. He went to the fish market and studied the fish that were sold there. Fish scales in the top left demon emulate his studies from the market. In each of the demon’s faces there is a slight familiar features from different animals; a monkey, dragonfly head, and parts of cats. The appearances are more naturalistic and add a sense of reality in the image. Michelangelo also paints the face of St. Anthony with naturalistic features. Allowing the wrinkles and gray hair to be distinct characteristics, he manages to establish a tranquil emotion from St. Anthony. The contrast between St. Anthony and the demon’s faces relates to the feelings Anthony was encountering when he had these
The demons tails and arms interact with each other bringing the viewer’s eye across the painting. This creates a flow of energy and movement in the painting. From the edge of the rock there is a strong line that follows the arching green demon through a part of St. Anthony’s robe towards the top of the panel. This allows a direction of left to right in the painting which then flows down to circulate the whole image. The figures are mainly covering the entire space. The background and few rocks adds depth and atmospheric prospective. The negative space allows the canvas to breathe and gives the eye time to rest. Some of the animals wings or arms hover the edge of the paining, forcing the eye to move all the way up to the bottom. Michelangelo’s brushstrokes are smooth in most of the painting. Until he paints St. Anthony’s drapery, his brushstrokes begin to increase in size. Michelangelo’s detail in the painting shows the amazing talent he has with a paint brush. He is able to represent every hair or scale on the demons as if they were truly in reality. Michelangelo constantly used the paint to push and pull, bringing lines that were first drawn as a sketch to the foreground. The sharp lines and borders are distinct making sure the outlines were