05 works, Today, October 21th, is Saint Hilarion's day, her story illustrated #292

Nicolas François Octave Tassaert , (1800–1874) 

Temptation of Saint Hilarion, circa 1857

Oil on canvas

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Nicolas François Octave Tassaert (Paris, 26 July 1800 – Paris, 24 April 1874) was a French painter of portraits and genre, religious, historical and allegorical paintings, as well as a lithographer and engraver.

Octave's first artistic training came from his father Jean-Joseph-François Tassaert (1765-c. 1835) and his older brother Paul (?-1855). Next he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts (1817–25) from 1817 through 1825, under Guillaume Guillon-Lethière, but never won the school's Prix de Rome. Winning popular but not critical success, his works showing poor people's lives were felt melodramatic by critics but acclaimed by the public. 

His submission to the 1855 World Exhibition was well received by the critics, but Octave ceased to exhibit after the 1857 Salon, withdrawing more and more from the formal art world. Collectors of his works included Alfred Bruyas and Alexandre Dumas, fils, but in 1863 Octave stopped painting altogether and tried to become a poet, selling all his remaining paintings to the dealer Père Martin. He declined into alcoholism, damaging his eyesight and finally committing suicide by inhaling coal gas in 1874. More on Nicolas François Octave Tassaert

Saint Hilarion, (born c. AD 291, Tabatha, Palestine - died 371, Cyprus), monk and mystic who founded Christian monasticism in Palestine modeled after the Egyptian tradition.

Hilarion came from non-Christian parents and studied under a grammarian at Alexandria, where he became a Christian. He also came under the influence of the renowned desert ascetic Anthony of Egypt and followed his discipline for two months. Returning to Palestine in 306 at the age of 15, he instituted the eremitical life there by erecting a hut in the wilderness some seven miles from Maiuma, near Gaza, on the road to Egypt. 

Unknown artist

Saint Hilarion

I have no further description, at this time

He observed the strict ascetical regimen of fasting and chanting the Old Testament psalm prayers, and, like the Egyptian hermits, he wove baskets of rushes to earn his subsistence, possessing only a monk’s garb, which he willed to a colleague at death. 

Vincent de Beauvais

Saint Hilarion and the tempting demons, c. 15th century

Manuscript of the Speculum Historiale

I have no further description, at this time

Vincent of Beauvais (1184/1194 – c. 1264) was a Dominican friar at the Cistercian monastery of Royaumont Abbey, France. He is known mostly for his Great Mirror (Speculum Maius), a major work of compilation that was widely read in the Middle Ages. Often retroactively described as an encyclopedia or as a florilegium, his text exists as a core example of brief compendiums produced in medieval Europe.

Conjectures place him first in the house of the Dominicans at Paris between 1215 and 1220, and later at the Dominican monastery founded by Louis IX of France at Beauvais in Picardy. It is more certain, however, that he held the post of "reader" at the monastery of Royaumont on the Oise, not far from Paris, also founded by Louis IX, between 1228 and 1235. Around the late 1230s, Vincent had begun working on the Great Mirror and in 1244 he had completed the first draft. The king read the books that Vincent compiled and supplied the funds for procuring copies of such authors as he required. In the late 1240s. More on Vincent of Beauvais

In the wilderness, the Monk struggled intensely with impure thoughts, vexations of the spirit, and the burning passions of the flesh, but he overcame them with heavy labors, fasting and fervent prayer. 

Dominique Papety,  (1815–1849)

Temptation of Saint Hilarion, circa 1843

Oil on canvas

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Dominique Louis Féréol Papety (12 August 1815, in Marseille – 19 September 1849, in Marseille) was a French painter. He is best known for his canvases and drawings on Greek themes, both Classical and contemporary, and is considered an early member of the Neo-Grec movement.

After displaying some talent for drawing, he took lessons from Augustin Aubert. In 1835, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris, where he studied with Léon Cogniet. The following year, he shared first place for the Prix de Rome. His first exhibition at the Salon was in 1843.

He took a trip to Greece in 1846. He visited all twenty-three monasteries on Mount Athos, made hundreds of drawings and, the following year, published a combination travelogue and report in the Revue des deux Mondes titled Les peintures byzantines et les couvents de l'Athos.

He took another trip to Greece, in 1847, and made sketches that were later used to decorate the Panthéon in Paris. When he returned to Marseille, he was ill with cholera. He appeared to improve, but occasional bouts of fever recurred and worsened during a stay in Camargue.

The disease ultimately proved to be fatal and he died in 1849, aged only thirty-four. This was after the Second Cholera Pandemic had reached France, so his funeral was unattended. His remaining works were sold at an auction. More on Dominique Papety

The devil sought to scare the Saint with ghosts and apparitions. During the prayer of Saint Hilarion heard children cry, wail women, the roar of lions and other wild beasts. The monk understood that it was the demons responsible for these terrors, in order to drive him out of the desert. He overcame his fear with the help of fervent prayer. Once, thieves came across Saint-Hilarion, and he persuaded them to give up their life of crime through the power of his words.

Sacchi, Pier Francesco; 1485–1528.

The hermit saints Anthony, Paul and Hilarion, c. 1516

Oil on wood

Church of San Sebastiano in Genoa

Pier-Francesco Sacchi (known active 1512–1520) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period.

Born in Pavia, he worked in Genoa and became a member of that guild of painters in 1520. He painted in 1512, the Parting of St. John Baptist from his parents for the Oratory of Santa Maria in Genoa. He followed a style of Carlo Mantegna. More on Pier-Francesco Sacchi

Saint Jerome’s account emphasizes Hilarion’s proselytizing the Saracens and his wonder-working among the sick and demoniacs. After establishing the first Palestinian monastery in 329, Hilarion, seeking solitude, migrated to the monastic center at Thebes, Egypt, thence through North Africa and Sicily, eventually settling in Cyprus. 

He is credited with prophesying the religious persecution decreed by Emperor Julian the Apostate (361–363). After death, his body was recovered by the monks of his original foundation in Gaza. A cult of veneration spread to Europe, especially about Venice and Pisa, Italy, and in parts of France. More on Saint Hilarion

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