Museum visit by Juan Jose Atilano

I went to the Timken Museum at Balboa Park for my gallery visit. They have good exhibitions and the best of all is that is free. The painting that really got my attention was titled, "Torment of St. Anthony" (Oil on panel), at first instance reminded me of Hieronymus Bosch. This painting was made by an Italian named Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo; he used very good contrast in each side of the piece. Painting a peaceful landscape on the left side with a blue cloudy sky, green hills giving a sense of tranquility; on the other side, a very dark and reddish panorama. The ground of hell burning and making the sky so red with all those little creatures chasing St. Anthony, crossing from one side to the other is what I find the most interesting in this painting. It is said that St. Anthony gave his wealth to the poor and lived his life as a hermit.

Those little demons and the dark landscape are the points that make similar the paintings from this artist and the one from Bosch. Also both paintings have like three separations. Bosch divided his painting into three pieces, that is why is called a triptic; on the other hand, we can see the divisions in Savoldo's painting with the green landscape, the stone in the middle, and the hell scene on the right side.

Over all I found this piece the most interesting of the gallery. I really like the flowing of the picture from one side to the other. The contrast of colors, the contrast of size on the characters, and also on the architecture in each landscape. I really enjoyed the visit to the museum; I am going to do this more often.