Description
Caravaggesque painter (17th century) – Saint Jerome.
Oil on canvas, unframed.
The painting depicts Saint Jerome recumbent, wrapped in a red cloak, in a moment of exhaustion or meditation. His traditional attributes are present: a skull, symbol of vanitas and contemplation of death, and an open book alluding to his role as translator of the Scriptures. Two putti observe the scene from the right, while the lion, the saint’s iconographic companion, appears in the dark background at left. The pronounced foreshortening of the figure and the strong contrast between illuminated flesh and the dark ground reflect a clear debt to Caravaggesque painting, as filtered through the Emilian or Roman tradition of the seventeenth century.
Condition report: Lined canvas. Good state of conservation of the pictorial surface; signs of aging and wear are present.
