Who painted The Temptation of Christ?

Ary Scheffer painted The Temptation of Christ in 1854.

What Bible passage does The Temptation of Christ depict?

The Temptation of Christ depicts the biblical scene from Matthew 4:1-11.

The Temptation of Christ by Ary Scheffer

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The Temptation of Christ by Ary Scheffer depicts the dramatic encounter described in Matthew 4:1-11, where Jesus, after fasting for forty days in the wilderness, is confronted by the Devil. Scheffer captures the spiritual struggle with characteristic emotional intensity, showing Christ resisting the tempter's offers of worldly power and comfort.

This painting, held in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, is a smaller version of a larger life-size composition that Scheffer had begun but later abandoned in favour of these reduced copies. The intimate scale allows Scheffer to focus on the psychological tension between the two figures, with Christ's calm resolve contrasting with the Devil's insistent presence.

Scheffer's later works, including this one, display Symbolist tendencies, drawing inspiration from the compositional clarity and direct narrative approach of Italian Renaissance painting. The work reflects his move beyond his earlier neo-classical and Romantic phases toward a more spiritually focused style, using emotionally charged imagery to convey the gravity of the biblical encounter.

Details

Artist: Ary Scheffer
Created: 1854
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimension: 55cm × 75.5cm
Passage: Matthew 4:1-11

Found in: Matthew, Matthew 4, 19th century

Matthew 4:1-11

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

2 When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.

3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple,

6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will put his angels in charge of you.’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.

9 He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and served him.

Matthew 4:1-11 · World English Bible

The artist

Ary Scheffer

1795 - 1858

Dordrecht, Netherlands

Ary Scheffer was a Dutch-French Romantic painter born on February 10, 1795, to a family of artists. His father, Johan Bernard Scheffer, was a portrait painter, and his mother, Cornelia Lamme, was a portrait miniature painter. Scheffer's artistic talent was nurtured from a young age, and he attended the drawing academy in Amsterdam at the age of 11. After his father's death in 1809, Scheffer moved to Lille and later to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts…