Madonna and Child with St Jerome

In this private devotional panel the Madonna and Child are adored by Saint Jerome (ca. 347-420 CE), renowned during the Renaissance as a model example of piety and learning. Jerome holds a rock, a reference to the years he spent in the wilderness beating a stone against his chest as a form of “penitence,” or meditation on Christ’s suffering (see Walters 37.1089). The saint also appears with his faithful companion, a lion, which he is said to have tamed by removing a thorn from its paw.

The painting is by an anonymous artist working in the style of Bernardino Pinturicchio, one of the most famous painters in Italy during the late 1400s and a particular favorite of the popes. Pinturicchio spent much of his career painting important altarpieces and fresco cycles in both Rome and his native Perugia in central Italy, and therefore accumulated many followers throughout Italy.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 146, as Andrea del Verrocchio]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.