Creative Commons License
Devotional Plaque with Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
(Renaissance Europe )
St. Jerome, the translator of the Bible into Latin, was often depicted as a hermit in his wilderness retreat, engaged in meditations on the cross. This exquisitely subtle example of reverse painting wonderfully exploits the luminosity for which the technique is valued. Light appears to suffuse the clearing, dappling the foliage and the saint, while drawing the eye towards the opening sky at the rim. The depiction of a landscape on a scale this small demanded great skill, and this object would have been prized for the difficulty involved in making it.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Leon Gruel, Paris; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1929 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Exhibitions
| 1971-1972 | World of Wonder. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
Geographies
Italy (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 4 3/16 × W: 4 7/8 × D: 3/8 in. (10.7 × 12.4 × 1 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters, 1929
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
46.12