On view
The Penitent Saint Jerome,
1419–20
In this painting, Saint Jerome’s right arm looks rosier and brighter than his left, as if a spotlight were shining on it. This effect not only makes sense with how light falls in the painting but also resonates with the work’s harsh spiritual message: by using his especially bright right arm to beat a rock against his chest as penance, Jerome comes closer to existential peace. However, this lighting effect was not part of the painting’s initial design. For uncertain reasons, but likely within fifty years of when the painting was created, the saint’s left arm, legs, and face were overpainted in darker and cooler hues, while his right arm was preserved and made brighter through contrast with the new overpaint on the rest of his body. Past scholarship has argued that the famous artist-friar Fra Angelico applied this overpainting. But who spotlit the arm? Is this a collaboration across—or with—time?
Annika Svendsen Finne, Paintings Conservator and PhD Candidate, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
More Context
This painting, which retains most of its original frame molding and iron hanging-ring, depicts Saint Jerome, face upturned, standing in the desert. In one hand he holds a scroll, and with the other he beats his chest with a rock. The strikingly innovative pose suggests an exceptional artist. Many attributions have been suggested, but a majority of recent scholars prefer the Florentine friar and artist Fra Angelico. In 1984, when the painting was undergoing restoration, it was discovered that the work had been heavily restored in the distant past, with repainting on the saint’s face, left arm, and both legs; his right forearm remains the only unrestored part of his anatomy. Here, the underpainting of terra verde is a light green color, which is what Fra Angelico used in his autograph works. The painting’s distinguished ownership history includes direct descendants of the early Renaissance painter Taddeo Gaddi, the literary couple Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and the Princeton professor and Art Museum director Frank Jewett Mather Jr. Describing the painting in his poem "Old Pictures in Florence," Browning wrote: "Some Jerome that seeks the heaven with a sad eye."
Information
1419–20
Florence, Casa Guidi, Robert and Elizabeth Browning, probably by 1850; [1]
R. W. Barret Browning Sale, May 1913, Sotheby’s, London; [2]
Probably acquired from the above by Dowdeswell.
Frank Jewett Mather (1868-1953), Washington Crossing, New Jersey, USA.
Bequest of the above to the Princeton University Art Museum.
Notes
[1] David J. DeLaura, "Some Notes on Browning’s Pictures and Painters", in Studies in Browning and His Circle, vol. 8, no. 2, 1980 p. 7
[2] This line and all following: Paul Julius Cardile, "Fra Angelico and his Workshop at San Domenico (1420-1435): the Development of his Style and the Formation of his Workshop". Dissertation, Yale University, December 1976.
- Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, eds., Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1907-1950)., Vol. 37: p. 324
- Adolfo Venturi, L’arte a San Girolamo, (Milano: Fratelli Treves, 1924)., p. 132ff
- Raimond van Marle, The development of the Italian schools of painting, (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1923-1938)., Vol. 1: p. 373
- Henrik Lindberg, To the problem of Masolino and Masaccio, (Stockholm: Kungl. boktryckeriet, P. A. Norstedt & söner, 1931)., Vol. 1: p. 206; Vol. 2: pl. 112
- Bernard Berenson, Italian pictures of the Renaissance: a list of the principal artists and their works, with an index of places, (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1932)., p. 268
-
Mario Salmi, Masaccio, (Paris: A. Weber, 1932).
, p. 143ff - Bernard Berenson, Pitture italiane del rinascimento: catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere, con un indice dei luoghi, (Milano: U. Hoepli, 1936)., p. 231
- John Pope-Hennessy, Sassetta, (London: Chatto & Windus, 1939)., p. 183-194
- Frederick Hartt, "Carpaccio's meditation on the Passion", Art bulletin 22, no. 1 (Mar., 1940): p. 25-35., no. 48
- Roberto Longhi, "Fatti di Masolino e di Masaccio", Critica d'arte 5, no. 3-4 (1940): p. 145-191., pl. 134, fig. 43; p. 174
- Frank Jewett Mather, "The problem of the Brancacci chapel historically considered", Art bulletin 26, no. 3 (Sept., 1944): p. 175-187., p. 186
- Rufus Graves Mather, Excavating buried treasure, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1945)., p. 90
- George Kaftal, Iconography of the saints in Tuscan painting, (Florence: Sansoni, 1952)., col. 524-525
- Licia Collobi-Ragghianti, "Studi angelichiani", Critica d'arte 2, no. 7 (1955): p. 22-45., p. 22-25
- Mario Salmi, Il Beato Angelico, (Roma: Valori plastici, 1958)., pl. 16A; p. 184, 185, 197
- Emma Micheletti, Masolino da Panicale, (Milano: Instituto editoriale italiano, 1959)., p. 56
- Patrick J. Kelleher, "College museum notes", Art journal 23, no. 1 (Autumn, 1963): p. 46-56., p. 46
- L. Berti, "Miniature dell'Angelico (e altro)", Acropli 3 (1963): p. 1-38., p. 38
- Stefano Orlandi, Beato Angelico: monografia storica della vita e delle opere con un’appendice di nuovi documenti inediti, (Firenze: L. S. Olschki, 1964)., p. 203
-
"Recent acquisitions", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 23, no. 2 (1964): p. 34-55.
, p. 51 (illus.) - "Summary of Acquisitions, 1963," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, vol. 23, no. 1 (1964): p. 29-31., p. 29
- Bernard Berenson, The Italian painters of the Renaissance, (London; New York: Phaidon, 1968).
- Umberto Baldini, L'opera completa dell' Angelico, (Milano: Rizzoli, 1970)., p. 86, no. 4
- B. B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of pre-nineteenth-century Italian paintings in North American collections, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972)., p. 99
- Millard Meiss, "Scholarship and penitence in the Early Renaissance: the image of St. Jerome", Pantheon 32 (1974): p. 134-140., p. 134-140; fig. 3
- John Pope-Hennessy, Fra Angelico, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1974)., p. 231, fig. 98
-
Millard Meiss, The painter's choice: problems in the interpretation of Renaissance art, (New York: Harper & Row, 1976).
, fig. 171 -
Marvin Eisenberg, "'The Penitent St Jerome' by Giovanni Toscani", Burlington magazine 118, no. 878 (May, 1976): p. 274-281+283.
, p. 275-283; fig. 15 - Miklos Boskovits, Un’adorazione dei magi e gli inizi dell’Angelico, (Riggisberg, Switzerland: Abegg-Stiftung Bern, 1976)., p. 31
- Paul Julius Cardile, Fra Angelico and his workshop at San Domenico (1420-1435): the development of his style and the formation of his workshop, (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1976)., p. 283-85, cat. no. 19; fig. 98
- Umberto Baldini, "Contributi all'Angelico: il Trittico di San Domenico di Fiesole e qualche altra aggiunta", in Scritti di storia dell’arte in onore di Ugo Procacci, (Milano: Electa, 1977)., p. 240
-
David J. DeLaura, "Some notes on Browning's pictures and painters", Studies in Browning and his circle 8, no. 2 (1980).
, Cover illus.; p. 7-8 - Hellmut Wohl, The paintings of Domenico Veneziano, ca. 1410-1461: a study in Florentine art of the early Renaissance, (New York: New York University Press, 1980)., pl. 151, p. 84, note 30
-
Eugene Rice, Saint Jerome in the Renaissance, (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985).
, p. 76, fig. 26 - Umberto Baldini, Beato Angelico, (Firenze: Edizioni d’arte Il Fiorino, 1986)., p. 273
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 79 (illus.)
- Daniel Russo, Saint Jérôme en Italie: étude d'iconographie et de spiritualité (XIIIe-XVe siècle), (Paris: Découverte ; Rome: Ecole française de Rome, 1987)., fig. 33; p. 202-203
- Arte in Lombardia tra Gotico e Rinascimento, (Milano: Fabbri, 1988)., p. 11; fig. 1
- Roeland Kollewijn, "Alcune osservazioni di ordine iconografico a proposito del "Girolamo penitente" di Princeton", Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 34, no. 3 (1990): p. 413-420., p. 413-420
- Perri Lee Roberts, Masolino da Panicale, ( Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)., fig. 86; p. 215, 217; cat. no. 28
- Laurence B. Kanter, et. al., Painting and illumination in early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1994)., p. 30, fig. 19
- John T. Spike, Fra Angelico, (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996). , p. 264; cat. no. 139 (illus.)
- Barbara T. Ross, "The Mather years 1922-1946," in "An art museum for Princeton: the early years", special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 55, no. 1/2 (1996): p. 53–76., p. 65, fig. 17
- Carl Strehlke, Angelico, (Milano: Jaca Book, 1998)., p. 16-18; pl. 20
- Luciano Bellosi, Laura Cavazzini and Aldo Galli, Masaccio e le origini del Rinascimento, (Milano: Skira, 2002). , cat. no. 24
- Carl Brandon Strelke, "The Princeton Penitent Saint Jerome, the Gaddi Family, and Early Fra Angelico," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 62 (2003): p. 4–27., p. 4, fig 1; p. 7, figs. 3–4
- Norman E. Muller. "Technical Note," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 62 (2003): p. 28–31., p. 28, fig. 1; p. 30, fig. 3
- Laurence Kanter and Pia Palladino, Fra Angelico, (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 265 (illus.)
- Laurence Kanter, "Reviewed Work: Fra Angelico by Diane Cole Ahl", Burlington magazine 151, no. 1275 (Jun., 2009)., p. 404
- Anne Leader, "Fra Angelico: Florence and Rome", Burlington magazine 151, no. 1275 (Jun., 2009): p. 417-419., p. 418
- Alessandro Zuccari, Giovanni Morello, and Gerardo de Simone, Beato Angelico: l’alba del Rinacimento, (Milano: Skira, 2009).
- Alessandro Zuccari, Giovanni Morello and Gerardo de Simone, eds. Beato Angelico: L'alba del Rinascimento. April 8-July 5, 2009. Rome, Musei Capitolini, (Milano: Skira, 2009)., p. 148-149, illus.
- Anne Leader, The Church and Desert Fathers in early Renaissance Florence : further thoughts on a "new" Thebaid, in Essays in Honor of Colin Eisler, (Canada: Toronto University Press, 2011).
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 317
