Saints Anthony and Paul in a Landscape

Teniers was a master of the Antwerp guild, and eventually married Anna Brueghel, the daughter of the Flemish painter, Jan Brueghel the Elder. He received his first commission from Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, governor of the Netherlands, in 1647, and four years later was appointed court painter and director of the Archduke's painting collection. Together with Adrian Brouwer, Teniers was the most important seventeenth-century Flemish painter of genre scenes. In this landscape, Teniers depicts the meeting of the two hermit saints, Anthony Abbot and Paul of Thebes. Towards the end of his life, Anthony, who was himself dedicated to a life of solitude and ascetic spirituality, visited Paul, traditionally regarded as the first Christian hermit.