The role of iconography in The Temptation of Saint Anthony, by Gustave Flaubert

Abstract

This article analyses the role of iconography in writing from the specific case of Gustave Flaubert’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874). Initially, we will approach the historical origins of the story of Saint Anthony and its iconographic reception in the Middle Ages. After that, we will evaluate how Flaubert’s narrative benefits from the repertoire of images on the theme of temptation and how the influence of iconography gains expression in the text. Finally, we will observe the processes of resignification and the modes of articulation between distinct languages (verbal and pictorial), to which the concept of hieroglyph, as seen in the light of theories of meaning, contributes.