Saint Jerome

c. 1621

Current Collection

Cleveland, United States

Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 149.2 × 125.4 × 8.3 cm
Status: In Museum Collection
Collect24 Art ID: C24-111984

Not all subjects are easy to identify. This museum long thought that the subject was the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, largely because tears are part of the standard representation of this ancient thinker. However, ter Brugghen omits the other crucial key to identifying Heraclitus--a globe over which he weeps. Instead, the book and skull indicate that the figure is Saint Jerome, known for translating the Bible into Latin. The artist probably chose to show Jerome crying to intensify his penitence.

Provenance

Marlatt Fund, 1977.2

Registry history

c. 1621 — Recorded in the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

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Auction history

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