Paintings
Saint Jerome
Permanent ExhibitionPaintingReligious Art
Details
- Author / creator
- Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish, 1591–1652)
- Object type
- Painting
- Date or period
- c. 1638–40
- Dimensions summary
- Framed: 150 × 121.5 × 9 cm; Unframed: 129 × 100.3 cm
- Support
- Canvas
- Paint medium
- Oil
- Place of origin
- Spain
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the Hartley Bequest Fund, 1961
About this object
Saint Jerome (about ad 347–420) translated biblical texts into Latin. Although he sometimes appears as a scholar in his study, Ribera represents him here as a penitent who withdrew to the desert, beating his chest with a stone to emulate Christ’s suffering and contemplating a skull symbolizing human vanity. Working in Naples, Ribera enthusiastically adapted Caravaggio’s characteristic use of light and dark and naturalistic models.
Materials and technique
Oil on canvas
Signature and marks
Signed lower right: "Jusepe de Ribera espa[ñol]. F."
