Two paintings of interest on the Getty Museum Web site include Hubert Robert’s lush romantic Hermit Praying in the Ruins of a Roman Temple and Lorenzo Costa’s pen and ink depiction of the Thebaid in A Thebaid: Monks and Hermits in a Landscape.
For the Robert: http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/objects/o918.html.
For the Costa: http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/objects/o204.html.
Hermits in Art: Paul and Antony
Here are two wonderful collections of iconography at the Web site of a professor at Augusta State University, Georgia (USA) highlighting St. Paul the hermit and St. Antony the hermit. Both Web pages collect classic paintings featuring these two eremitic figures. For the St. Paul page, go to: http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/paulHermit.html. For the St. Antony page, go to http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/anthonyAbbot.html.
Recluse as Poet: on NPR
The recluse as a poetic device is featured in poet David Budbill’s book, which he discusses in an NPR interview. From the Web page: “Host Lisa Simeone talks with Vermont poet David Budbill, who reads from his book, Moment To Moment: Poems Of A Mountain Recluse. Budbill’s ‘recluse’ is Judevine Mountain, named after the mountain on which Budbill lives.” Program Web site: http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1120825.