Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi
(1406–1486)

Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi, Saint Anthony Abbot Tempted by Gold, mid-fifteenth century, tempera on panel, Collection Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, installation view, Neue Galerie, Kassel, documenta 14, photo: Mathias Völzke

Of the many guises donned by the devil in his ultimately fruitless attempts to lead Saint Anthony the Abbot into temptation, the mound of gold is perhaps the most abstract, iconographically speaking—but to our contemporary eyes, it is obviously also the most topical and easily recognizable. On view are two variations of the motif of “Saint Anthony Shunning Gold,” painted by lesser-known early Renaissance painters, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini and Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi.

Posted in Public Exhibition