In this print, Saint Jerome sits in the corner of his study with his body hunched over a writing stand. His bent head is haloed, emitting its own source of light. He clutches a pen in his right-hand, notating his thoughts to paper. The well-lit table before him is quite bare, with the exception of an ink quill and a small crucifix off to the right corner. On the wall directly behind the Saint, an hour glass, a cardinal’s hat, and various other utensils adorn the wall. A gourd hangs from a cross beam on the wood ceiling. The room is illuminated by mottled sunlight streaming in through the two mullioned windows to the left of the composition. On the closest windowsill, rests a human skull. Beneath the skull a long extending bench is pushed up against the wall, its surface is covered with books and cushions. In the foreground lies a sleeping dog nestled in front of a pair of slippers. Beside him lies a tranquil lion whose eyes remain open and watchful. To the right of the lion’s tail are the initials of the artist, cleverly concealed in a placard that appears to have fallen from the nearest wall.
Albrecht Dürer engraved Saint Jerome in His Study in 1514. Art historian, Karoline Feulner, comments upon the strokes, points, and hatching lines that the artist utilises as successful techniques for translating the source of light (Feulner 2013, p.260). The exterior light from the outside contrasts with the interior darkness of the dimly lit room and illuminates the composition. Art historian, Heinrich Wölfflin observes that the ‘way the light is slanting through the round window-panes with the patterns of the sun on the splay, the meeting of the different sources of light and the balance between shade, and reflected light have always been admired’ (Wolfflin 1971, p. 207). The brightest source of light radiates from the Saint’s halo which is positioned close to the centre of the print. The composition is also notable due to the implied position of the viewer. As curators Gaillard Ravenel and Jay Levenson have noted: ‘The observer’s theoretical distance from the picture plane […] is quite short, about four feet. We thus find ourselves placed on one of the lower steps leading into the chamber, friendly visitors who are careful not to impose upon the saint’s privacy’ (Ravenal et al 1971, p.146).
Saint Jerome was a popular religious figure during Dürer’s lifetime. Feulner writes: ‘As an exegete of the Holy Scriptures and author of number theological treatises, Jerome was respected and revered for his scholarly achievements’ (Feulner 2013, p.260). One of the Saint’s most widely recognized accomplishments is that he translated the Bible from the original Hebrew into Latin, in version that became known at the Vulgate. Wölfflin also notes that Dürer chose to depict the Saint in his study because he was a pensive and scholarly man who needed the seclusion of a private room for prayer and contemplation (Wölfflin 1971, p.206). The room is laden with allegorical and metaphorical imagery. The lion in the foreground of the composition is taken from an allegorical tale about the Saint in which he extracts a thorn from the paw of a lion, thus gaining its respect and loyalty. A half-full hourglass also appears in Dürer’s prints Knight, Death, and Devil and Melencolia I, as well as the human skull, which speak to a larger message of time passing. Ravenal and Stevenson suggest that ‘Death and the transience of the earthly existence, symbolized by the hour glass, hold no fear for the saint, whose spiritual contemplation provides him with a foretaste of eternity’ (Ravenal et al 1971, p. 146).
Saint Jerome appears more times in Dürer’s works than any other saint. In 1511, three years before this Saint Jerome in his Study, Dürer produced a similar work, a woodcut entitled St. Jerome in his Cell (National Gallery of Canada). The juxtaposition of these two works highlights the different techniques that can be accomplished through the two mediums of woodcutting and engraving. According to Wölfflin, ‘The woodcut simply does not compete with the engraving in the rendering of texture. The different ways in which the beams are treated is the most vivid example of this’ (Wölfflin 1971, p. 210). Due to the limitations of woodcutting, the attention to detail can be regarded as less expressive when contrasted with the pliability to details that engraving provides.
This print is one of Dürer’s three Meisterstiche or ‘master engravings’, the other two of which are Knight, Death, and Devil 1513 and Melencolia I 1514. Attempts have been made by art historians such as Paul Weber and Erwin Panofsky to link the three master engravings together. They see Saint Jerome and the Knight as figures of religious piety, dedicating their lives to Christ. The Saint demonstrates his devotion in his service of sacred contemplation and the Knight pledges his faithfulness through the heroic performance in the field of action. The central figure in Melencolia I stands in opposition to these two pious characters, with a life opposed to the service of God, lacking in fulfilment and purpose (Weber and Panofsky’s arguments summarised in Ravenal et al 1971, p.146).
Further reading
Gaillard Ravenel, Jay Levenson, ‘Catalogue of Prints’ in Charles Talbot (ed.), Dürer in America His Graphic Work, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Art Washington, District of Columbia 1971, pp.111–98.
Henrich Wölfflin, The Art of Albrecht Dürer, London 1971.
Karoline Fleuner, ‘St. Jerome in his Study’ in Jochen Sander (ed.), Albrecht Dürer: His Life in Context, exhibition catalogue, Stradel Museum, Germany 2013, pp.260–1.
Trudy Gaba
The University of Edinburgh
December 2016
