The 10 most famous paintings in the world - Number 8: The Temptation of St. Anthony

Painting by the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí in 1946. The oil on canvas, from the surrealist current, measures 90 x 119.5 cm, and is kept in Brussels at the Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts.

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The painting shows Saint Anthony the Abbot in a desert, kneeling and holding a cross made of two sticks to protect himself from the temptations that attack him, these are represented by a horse and a row of elephants, both with elongated legs, each carrying a temptation.

The painting literally describes the temptations to which man normally falls:

• Ambition, represented by the horse, whose hoofs are worn out and full of dust.

• Temptation, represented by the woman on the first elephant.

• Greed, represented by the two elephants on which there is a pyramid and a golden house, and within the latter, a bust of a woman awaits him.