Jacques Callot was one of the brightest and most individual of 17th-century French artists. He worked in almost all the genres of his time: historical, religious, portrait, landscape, genre painting etc, often turning to grotesque and satire which, since these genres were officially ‘in disgrace', were not widespread in 17th-century art. The most inspired of all his satirical and grotesque works is the engraving The Temptation of St Anthony, also known as The Second Temptation of St Anthony, because Callot had already created a work on this subject in 1617. One of three surviving sketches showing the composition for this etching is also in the Hermitage.