Otto M. Urban

Hrozná monstra vědy a strašné příšery umění: Redonovo Pokušení svatého Antonína

The story of the temptation of Saint Anthony belongs to the favourite themes in the history of visual art. In the last third of the 19th century, it became, through the influence of Gustave Flaubert, a key motif for modern artists such as F. Rops, F. Knopff and A. Kubin. It was in these years that Odilon Redon painted the temptation in three lithographic cycles, containing more than 40 pages. The significance of the cycles lies in the artist's ability to entwine artistic form with a philosophically coherent concept. In the work, Redon newly expresses the relation between scientific knowledge (of the natural sciences) and artistic creation.

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