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Saint Jerome

Salvator Rosa

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Basic information
ID
Ж-1682
Author
Salvator Rosa
Name
Saint Jerome
Date of creation
17th c.
Country
Italy
Technique
oil painting
Material
canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm)
96.5 x 77.5
Additionally
Type
painting
Genre
religious
Plot
Hermit
Provenance
the Lubomirski collection
Information about author
Author
Salvator Rosa
Artist's lifetime
1615–1673
Country
Italy
Biography
Salvator Rosa was one of the most original Italian artists of the 17th century. He began his career as a master of figures in Naples but rapidly grew interested in landscape painting. The artist paid special attention to figures in his early works, which he meticulously executed. Salvator Rosa's success as a landscape painter enabled him to receive an order for a series of paintings at Buen Retiro Palace. In the late 1630s, the artist moved to Rome, where he perfected his skills in landscape painting, which became his primary speciality. Subsequently, he worked in and around Florence in the 1640s and then returned to Rome again. Although landscape dominated Salvator Rosa's creative work, his interests were far broader. Under the influence of Dutch artists, he repeatedly executed portraits, allegories, and mystical scenes of sorcery and witches' covens.
Object description
St. Jerome was one of the most depicted saints in 17th-century Italian painting. The church promoted the popularity of his cult, as he was regarded as a theologian, a hermit, and a writer who was the first to translate the Bible into Latin. The painting depicts the saint in meditation, with his traditional attributes. The glasses symbolise his wisdom, the open Bible, sheets of paper, and pen represent the translation of the Holy Scriptures, and the skull serves as the sign of the transience of life. St. Jerome is depicted as half-figured with a detailed anatomy of the body. He is dressed in a red cloak, considered a cardinality symbol. The picture's composition, execution, and plot are unusual for Salvator Rosa's creative work. The signature "Salvator Rosa 80" on one of the sheets in the basket was most likely added afterwards.
Legal regulation
Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

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