St. Jerome in a Landscape

Anonymous, Italian, Venetian, 15th to 16th century Italian

1495–1500

Not on view

This delicately cross-hatched, naturalistic scene is quietly contemplative in mood. The manner of envisioning the figure in the foreground with a roving pastoral landscape beyond is characteristic of Venetian painting at the time of Giovanni Bellini. The composition portrays the emaciated hermit Saint Jerome, kneeling in prayer before a small crucifix in a rocky promontory, slightly off-center to the left. Seen in a profile view, the figure of the saint seems especially poignant as a lifelike, anti-classical portrayal of old age, which is indebted to Northern European art. The overall tonal modulation across the composition is especially striking because it is attained entirely by cross-hatching strokes in pen and ink, an inherently linear technique. Elements throughout the composition are outlined with jaggedly expressive contours full of tonal articulation, a graphic habit that would certainly be beyond the capacity of anyone but an artist of the first rank.

(Carmen C. Bambach, 2001)

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: St. Jerome in a Landscape
Artist: Anonymous, Italian, Venetian, 15th to 16th century
Date: 1495–1500
Medium: Pen and brown ink, over leadpoint (?)
Dimensions: 5 3/4 x 7 3/16 in. (14.6 x 18.3 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Katrin Henkel, 2001
Object Number: 2001.156.1
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, Anonymous, Italian, Venetian, 15th to 16th century Italian, Pen and brown ink on brown paper — Christ's Entry into Jerusalem
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Symbolic Figure (a Sibyl?), Anonymous, Italian, Venetian, 15th to 16th century Italian, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, touched with red chalk and white, on brown gray paper — Symbolic Figure (a Sibyl?)
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Trees, Anonymous, Italian, Venetian, 15th to 16th century Italian, Pen and brown ink — Trees
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