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Saint Jerome in His Study
Antonello da Messina · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Antonello da Messina (c. 1430–1479)
- Date
- c. 1475
- Dimensions
- 45.7 x 36.2 cm
- Medium
- Oil on lime panel
- Location
- National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
This small panel shows Saint Jerome, the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin, reading at a raised wooden desk set like a stage inside a vast Gothic hall. We look in through a stone arch, as if through a window.
A closer look
Jerome sits absorbed in his book, wearing the red robes of a cardinal, his shoes left on the step. His study is filled with carefully observed objects: books, pots and a towel on the shelves, a cat curled on a platform, potted plants. Along the dark hall to the right, his faithful lion, whom he had freed from a thorn, walks quietly. On the stone ledge in the foreground stand a partridge, a peacock and a brass bowl. Light falls from several windows, through which tiny landscapes appear. The precise detail reflects Netherlandish models, combined with Italian perspective.
History of the painting
In 1529 the Venetian connoisseur Marcantonio Michiel saw the little panel in the house of Antonio Pasqualino in Venice and noted that some thought it was by Antonello, others by a Flemish master. Centuries later it belonged to the Baring banking family; in 1894 the National Gallery in London bought it from Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook.
More by Antonello da Messina
In this gallery
Famous works elsewhere
- San Cassiano Altarpiece 1475
- Saint Sebastian 1478
- Calvary 1475
- Christ at the Column 1477
- The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel 1475
- Ecce Homo 1475