However, most of the devils are portrayed as dark figures in the form of winged creatures. This creates a distinct contrast between the saint, the holy light of his practice, and the darkness of evil.
Both paintings feature a contrast of color as well as theme. The supernatural glow of the central saint contrasts with the darkness of temptation, just like the pure light of the music of Orpheus contrasts with the darkness of the wilderness. Both paintings, as well as depicting a subject, thus also convey an ideological point-of-view of the subject. In Orpheus Charming the Animals, even the wild beasts are stilled by the ability of Orpheus to play, reflecting the power of the human art of music. In Teniers' painting, the holy focus of the saint is so pure, even the very real-looking hallucinogenic temptations created by Lucifer contrast with his beatific, radiant light. "Teniers uses a buff colored ground and a thin layer of paint. Teniers was well-known for his subtle range of colors that were painted 'wet on wet'" which intensified the contrasts of light in his works (Kummer 2011).
Space and texture convey the relationships of the characters, given that both paintings tell stories about the subject's lives. For example, the image of the lustful temptation to Saint Anthony is rendered in a flat, matte fashion, as if she were a real, substantial person. Although she looks equally as corporal as Anthony, due to the bright light and lusty flesh tones of the composition, Anthony's absolute indifference convey the strength of his resolve and also the realities of the temptations of the devil. The animals Orpheus sings to are symbolic of their places in the animal kingdom, yet have an individuated quality, from the bright, contrasting color of the paint horse to the glowing smile of the camel that is sharply rendered, in contrast to the softer lines of the rest of the painting.
Both of these allegorical works make use of idealized anatomical depiction. The images of the human frame, in their anatomical symmetry, recall classic images of Greece and Rome, and the classic subject...
The Renaissance was a time of revival of interest in antiquity, versus the suppression of interest in pagan subjects in the era immediately previous to it. "In the literature of ancient Greece and Rome the artists and philosophers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries discovered an aesthetic attitude that greatly attracted them, namely, a yearning for perfection based on the desire to create something ideally beautiful" (Seiferth 2011). In Orpheus' symmetrical form and the idealized representations of the animal kingdom, this yearning is manifest.
Even in the rendition of St. Anthony, although not a classical subject, the idea of spiritual perfection is manifest in the harmony of Anthony's proportions, versus the grotesqueness of the surrounding demons. "Teniers painted this subject several times, and in it expressed as a moralistic story. St. Anthony was seen as a leader of monastic life and model for the denial of vice, specifically pleasures of the flesh. Here he is surrounded by sources of temptation that appear as demons under the direction of Satan" (Kummer 2011). The centrality of focus upon Anthony and Anthony's purity is underlined by his symmetrical, focused act of praying, versus the chaotic images of sin around him.
While idealized, however, Renaissance painting always retains a certain degree of 'reality' in its heavy brushwork and detail. Both Orpheus and Anthony are recognizably human, even while they are performing supernatural feats of aesthetic and spiritual accomplishment. The paintings show the great men in action, in the case of Orpheus, while playing, and in the case of Anthony, while showing resistance to temptation. The use of a 'scene' is meant to add to, rather than detract from a gazer's sense of awe.
References
Kummer, Julie. "The Temptation of Saint Anthony." [18 Nov 2011]
http://www.willemswebs.com/ringlingdocents/stanthony.htm
Seiferth, Michael. "Renaissance." English 222. [18 Nov 2011]
http://lonestar.texas.net/~mseifert/renaissance.html
