Currently not on view
Saint Jerome in his Study,
1514
Albrecht Dürer, 1471–1528; born and died Nuremberg, Germany; active Venice, Italy, and Nuremburg
x1949-208
Together with Melancholia I and Knight, Death, and the Devil, this print completes Dürer’s master engravings or Meisterstiche series, produced around 1513–14. This contemplative image of Saint Jerome as a scholar gains its power from the artist’s technical skill—a variety of lines and marks are brilliantly manipulated to create layers of shadow, light, volume, and texture. The skull, hourglass, and cross symbolize human mortality and hope of salvation, Jerome’s primary concerns. Legend says that the saint once removed a thorn from the paw of a lion, which then became his permanent companion. The lion lying protectively in the foreground of the sunlit room represents the taming of human passions.
Information
Title
Saint Jerome in his Study
Dates
1514
Maker
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
plate (sheet trimmed to plate): 24.7 × 18.7 cm (9 3/4 × 7 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Jessie P. Frothingham
Object Number
x1949-208
Place Made
Europe, Germany, Nuremburg
Inscription
Date and monogram in plate on tablet, lower right: 1514 | AD
Reference Numbers
Bartsch 6; Dodgson 74; Hollstein 59; Meder 59; Schoch 65
Type
Materials
Techniques
-
Adam vom Bartsch, "Volume 7," Le peintre graveur ... (Vienne: J. V. Degen, 1803-05).
, nos. 3–17, pp. 33–39 -
Sylvester Rosa Koehler, A Chronological Catalogue of the Engravings, Dry-points and Etchings of Albert Dürer, as Exhibited at the Grolier Club (New York: The Grolier Club, 1897).
, no. 70, pp. 60–63 - Arthur Mayger Hind, Albrecht Dürer: his engravings and woodcuts (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1911)., p. 14
-
Campbell Dodgson, Albrecht Dürer (London: Medici Society, 1926).
, no. 125, p. 307 - Joseph Meder, Dürer-Katalog, ein handbuch über Albrecht Dürers stiche, radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren zustände, ausgaben und wasserzeichen (Vienna: Gilhofer & Rauschburg, 1932)., no. 3–18, p. 70 (illus.)
- Erwin Panofsky, Albrecht Dürer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1945)., no. 1610
- "Recent Acquisitions," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 8, no. 2 (1949): 11–12., p. 12
-
F.W.H. Hollstein, “Dürer,” German engravings, etchings, and woodcuts, ca. 1400-1700 (Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1962).
, no. 273 -
Rainer Schoch, Matthias Mende, and Anna Scherbaum, Albrecht Dürer: das druckgraphische Werk (München: Prestel, 2001).
, no. 2, p. 241
