The Torment of Saint Anthony Kimbell with frame

The saint, wearing a dark monk's habit, maintains a calm and prayerful expression while being pulled and beaten by colorful monsters featuring scales, fish-like fins, and bat wings. The chaotic scene takes place high above a hazy, jagged landscape with a winding river and distant mountains. This work is Michelangelo's earliest known painting, executed as a meticulous expansion of a famous engraving by Martin Schongauer.

Based on the biography of Saint Anthony by Athanasius of Alexandria, this scene illustrates the 'psychomachia' or the spiritual struggle against material temptation. In the Neoplatonic circles of Florence where Michelangelo was trained, this aerial battle was often interpreted as the soul's difficult ascent through the sublunary spheres, where it must overcome demonic distractions to reach the divine.