Saint Jerome as Scholar
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
ca. 1610 · Oil on canvas · Robert Lehman Collection
El Greco executed at least five paintings of Saint Jerome. In this version, from the last years of the painter's life, the saint is shown in the red vestments of a cardinal, seated before an open book, an attribute indicating his role as translator of the Bible from Greek into Latin in the fifth century. His gaunt features and long white beard refer to his familiar guise as a penitent, recalling his retreat to the Syrian desert. The painting is notable for the novel way in which the artist synthesized the two aspects of Saint Jerome, the scholarly and the ascetic.
- Artist
- El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
- Date
- ca. 1610
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Department
- Robert Lehman Collection
- Credit line
- Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
