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Saint Jerome

Johann (Jan) Pfister

Basic information

ID: С-I-898
Author: Johann (Jan) Pfister
Name: Saint Jerome
Date of creation: 1630s
Country: Ukraine
Technique: carving
Material: wood
Dimensions (height x width x depth, cm): 153 x 50 x 38

Additionally

Type: sculpture
Genre: religious
Plot: Saint Jerome Evangelist
Provenance: Bishche village, Ternopil region, Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Information about author

Author: Johann (Jan) Pfister
Artist's lifetime: 1573–1640/1642
Biography: Johann (Jan) Pfister was a German sculptor, born in 1573 in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) in the family of the painter and sculptor George Pfister. He studied under masters from the Netherlands and Germany, namely Hans Fleiser, Friedrich Gross, and Gerhard Hendrick. Jan Pfister is considered to be the most outstanding sculptor at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries who worked in Ukraine and Poland. In his works, the sculptor used marble and alabaster rather than wood. He performed the best works in Lviv, Berezhany, and Tarnow. In 1615, at the request of Adam Hieronim Sieniawski, the sculptor began working in Berezhany on the tombstones of the noble Sieniawski family, namely Adam Hieronim and his three sons – Alexander, Mikolaj, and Prokop. Besides, Jan Pfister taught at a carving school in the town. Working as a court sculptor of the Sieniawski family, he carved the altar compositions in the Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary in the village of Bishche in the Ternopil region that also belonged to the family. In the 1630s, he worked on the decoration of the altar. Jan Pfister proved to be a professional sculptor who took the first steps in art under the influence of German and Dutch Mannerism.

Object description

The figure of Saint Jerome is one of the altar sculptures of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the village of Bishche. The peculiarity of the figures of the main altar is that instead of the usual images of prophets, apostles or evangelists, the author reproduced the sponsors of the Sieniawski family: Hieronim, Elzbieta, Mikolaj, and Katarzyna. The full-length sculpture of a man is executed professionally. The Mannerist style features in the capricious perspective and excessively elongated proportions of the figure are characteristic of Pfister's style. The frontality of the figure is enhanced by the folds of garments, which fall vertically. Saint Jerome's face impresses with the thoroughness of reproduction – a high open forehead, well-defined eyebrows, and a magnificent beard that falls on his chest in soft waves. The sculpture conveys the portrait features of Adam Hieronim Sieniawski, with whose assistance, as documented, Pfister stayed in Berezhany since 1612. The man is depicted in the image of Mark the Evangelist, as evidenced by the sculptural image of the head of a lion – a symbol of the Evangelist. The author skillfully conveyed the mood of the composition with the help of soft lines.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Saint Jerome

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