Die hll. Hieronymus, Maria Magdalena, Antonius und Franziskus (Kopie nach)

The painting has been cited as an early example of devotional group portraiture that anticipates later 17th-century configurations of saintly ensembles, influencing both religious narrative cycles and the spatial organization of multi-figure altarpieces. Its compositional strategy, placing a central, half‑naked figure of Saint Jerome in front of a monumental architectural backdrop while arranging complementary saints in secondary planes, has been repeatedly referenced in studies of Baroque devotional art as a model for integrating individual saintly attributes into a unified visual sermon. Contemporary records of its acquisition during the 1803 secularisation of the Augustinerkirche and its subsequent inclusion in the Bavarian State Painting Collections underscore its perceived cultural value, leading to repeated exhibitions in the Alte Pinakothek and later in the New Castle Schleißheim gallery, where it contributed to the canon of accessible sacred imagery for public audiences.

Created around 1600 by the Italian painter Carlo Saraceni, this early‑Baroque canvas brings together four saints, Jerome, Mary Magdalene, Anthony the Great and Francis of Assisi, set against a modest landscape. The work is part of the collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and exemplifies Saraceni’s engagement with religious subject matter during the transition from Mannerism to Baroque.

Saraceni employs a restrained chiaroscuro that models the bodies with soft contrasts of light and shadow, giving them a palpable three‑dimensionality. The background features a muted sky and distant terrain, while a columned architectural element frames the group, reinforcing the spatial depth typical of early Baroque painting.