Hieronymus Bosch (Jeroen van Aken, ca 1450-1516), Temptation of St. Anthony, left wing. Original, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. Copy, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels.

After St. Anthony - according to the medieval literature - had been overwhelmed by a horde of devils and left for dead, he is carried over the bridge by fellow hermits towards an old tomb where he had been praying but where he is again attacked and tossed high into the air so as to be borne and surrounded by several demons, while clasping his hands in desperate prayer.

Three monsters beneath the bridge argue about a paper that a skating demon-messenger has brought to them, and to the left, a bird gulps its newly hatched young. In the middle of the left wing, a male giant with bare buttocks is kneeling, his breast forming the roof of a brothel whose entrance lies between his open thighs. To the left, a sea monster is painted with the sea in the far background.