You’re walking through the desert of your life, and you happen upon a heap of gold. Knowing all the fairy tales about the temptation of wealth, what do you do? In this wonderful little Renaissance painting by Fra Angelico, St. Anthony of the Desert recoils from an admittedly rather forlorn-looking blob of gold, placed by the Devil to tempt him. Run, St. Anthony, run to the church (or these days, the museum)—you won’t find contaminating money there!! That lesson may not resonate in 21st-century America, but the notion that the world is full of snares and traps is evergreen.

To receive a weekly summary of the MFAH 100 series rather than a daily email, please subscribe on my Substack blog "The Impatient Reader."