Saint Jerome in Penitence

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

1525–30

Master of the Lille Adoration (Netherlandish, active about 1520–40)

Saint Jerome, known for translating the Bible into Latin, was a popular subject for paintings in the Renaissance, a period of renewed interest in secular and religious learning. Artists typically depicted him as a scholar in his study or as an ascetic in the wilderness, but this portrait-like image combines both themes. The books before him on the desk suggest his learned character, while the crucifix and skull he contemplates as he beats his breast with a rock evoke his hermetic activities. The saint displays the nervous, exaggerated gestures often found in work by this artist, known as the Master of the Lille Adoration.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Master of the Lille Adoration
Title: Saint Jerome in Penitence
Place: Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1525–1530
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 34.2 × 25.3 cm (13 1/2 × 10 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Suzette and Eugene Davidson
Reference Number: 2016.435
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/236975/manifest.json

Ellen Konowitz, “Dirk Vellert and the Master of the Lille Adoration: Some Antwerp Mannerist paintings reconsidered,” Oud Holland, 109 (1995): 185–87, 190, n. 26 and 29, fig. 12.
“New Acquisition: Saint Jerome in Penitence by the Master of the Lille Adoration”, Art Institute of Chicago Member Magazine 40 (July/August 2017): 13, ill.

Chicago, Richard L. Feigen & Co., Old Masters and the Modern Environment, September 20– October 21, 1972, no. 4.

British private collection, based on the label from an auction catalogue attached to the back of the panel (the label reads ALBERT DURER/11. Saint Jerome meditating. Very masterly). Julius Weitzner, London, by 1972 (according to email from Richard Feigen to Martha Wolff, October 19 and 20, 2016); consigned by Weitzner to Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York and Chicago, by 1972 (according to email exchange cited above and Feigen’s 1972 exhibition); sold to Suzette Morton Davidson (died 1996), Chicago and Santa Barbara, September 22, 1972 (according to Mrs. Davidson’s collection notes; copy supplied by her son, Victor Zurcher); by descent to Mr. and Mrs. Victor K. Zurcher, Hampshire, Ill.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.