St. Jerome

The Venetian Rococo artist Giambattista Tiepolo was a virtuoso draughtsman who approached drawing with a remarkable freedom. This is one of a number of drawings of the important Catholic saint made by Tiepolo in the 1720s to early 1730s. (A similar study is in the Museo Civico in Bassano.)

The subject of St Jerome (c.342–420)  was popular with Venetian painters and the iconography of the saint was based on the stories of the lives of the saints told in the thirteenth-century manuscript, the Golden Legend. St Jerome, whose translations of the New Testament from Greek and the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin formed the Vulgate Bible, was often depicted as a scholar in his study, surrounded by books, a crucifix, skull and hat. St Jerome spent four years in the wilderness, praying and fasting to quell his sexual desires and was often represented beating his chest with a stone.

In this drawing Tiepolo conflates several episodes from the saint’s life, showing him with many of his attributes. Naked except for a loin cloth, St Jerome is depicted kneeling outside, with a skull pressed to his chest, and an open book and hat before him. His right arm is outstretched as though ready to receive the stigmata.

Maria Zagala, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs