Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
Anonymous Artist Andrea Mantegna (follower)
In front of a crumbling stone building, an older man kneels in front of a second man, smaller in scale, hanging from a tall, wooden cross, with a city in the background in this vertical painting. Both men have pale skin. At the lower center of the composition, the kneeling man, Saint Jerome, pulls his navy-blue robe to one side to expose his muscular but slender bare chest with a bloody mark at its center. With his other hand, he holds a rounded, gray stone touched with pink, also suggesting blood, by his side. He has long, silvery-gray hair and a long, pointed beard. His pink lips are parted, and we see his teeth. He raises gray eyes to look up at the man on the slender cross, which rises along the left edge of the composition. The man on the cross brown hair, a plate-like gold halo, and a white loincloth is draped across his hips. The shell-pink ground is littered with rocks. A red hat with a shallow brim and a tasseled chin cord sits near Saint Jerome’s sandaled feet. A miniature lion lies between Saint Jerome and the arched opening of the crumbling, terracotta-red structure along the right edge of the painting. Ivy grows up one side of the arch, and an hourglass and book with a red cover and gold-edged pages sit on a white cloth under the opening. An owl perches on a branch of an oak tree growing from the front face of the structure, and a hawk sits on a branch of the fruit tree growing from the stone courtyard, between Saint Jerome and the crucifix. A shrub with dark green leaves and clusters of three olive-green fruits fills in most of the space beneath the canopy of the fruit tree. To our right and in the distance, a man with a pointed black hat, a black jacket, and white pants rides away from us on a gray horse. To our left, the courtyard gives way to an amphitheater-like space. There, next to a donkey, a man with a long white beard hands a bundle of wood or planks to another man whose brown hair is cut into a ring encircling his head. Both men wear rose-pink garments over navy-blue togas. A town with white and pale pink stone buildings rises up a hill into the distance. The sky above deepens from honeydew green along the horizon to pale then peacock blue along the top edge of the composition. A few ice-blue, white, and light gray clouds float across the sky.
Details
- Palette
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- Medium
- tempera on poplar panel
- Dimensions
- painted surface: 78.4 x 53 cm (30 7/8 x 20 7/8 in.) support: 80.7 x 55 cm (31 3/4 x 21 5/8 in.) framed: 102.6 x 76.2 cm (40 3/8 x 30 in.)
- Department
- CIS-R
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
11 tags
Subject Matter
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Deities and Holy Figures Both · 99%
Saint Jerome and the crucified Christ are the principal sacred figures depicted.
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Landscapes Both · 98%
The catalog identifies a wilderness setting, and the image shows an expansive outdoor environment with sky, distant terrain, vegetation, and architecture receding toward the horizon.
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Flora Visual · 99%
Trees, fruit-bearing branches, shrubs, ivy, and other leafy plants occupy much of the composition.
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Animals Both · 99%
A lion, owl, hawk, horse, and donkey are visible or identified in the cataloged scene.
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Human Figure Visual · 99%
The composition prominently features a large kneeling human figure, with a second human figure on the cross and additional small figures in the distance.
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Cityscapes Both · 96%
A cluster of pale buildings and streets appears in the lower-left distance; the catalog explicitly describes a town in the background.
Medium and Techniques
Time Periods
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15th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The work is dated circa 1475.
Materials
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Wood Metadata · 99%
The support is identified as a poplar panel, a wood support.
Cultural and Religious Styles
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Christian Art and Architecture Both · 99%
The title and catalog description identify Saint Jerome and Christ, while the image visibly shows a saint kneeling before a crucified figure in a Christian devotional scene.
Source & rights
Follower of Andrea Mantegna. Saint Jerome in the Wilderness. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.