Artwork
Wax Modeller Simon as St. Jerome
Wax Modeller Simon as St. Jerome is an oil painting by the Flemish Baroque painting artist Henrich Dittmers. It dates from 1665 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The choice of Jerome specifically links the subject to ideals of ascetic withdrawal, scriptural study, and penitential devotion.
The painting depicts Simon, identified in the work's title as a wax modeller, portrayed in the guise of Saint Jerome. By adopting the attributes of the Church Father, the sitter aligns himself with one of the most revered scholarly saints of Christian tradition, a common devotional strategy in seventeenth-century portraiture that allowed tradesmen and craftsmen to assert piety, learning, and spiritual aspiration through visual association with a holy figure.
The choice of Jerome specifically links the subject to ideals of ascetic withdrawal, scriptural study, and penitential devotion. For a wax modeller, whose craft involved the meticulous shaping of devotional figures, the identification carries an additional layer of meaning: it casts the act of modelling wax as a form of sacred imitation, framing the artisan's labor as spiritually meritorious rather than merely technical.
Rendered in oil on canvas and held by the Statens Museum for Kunst, the work thus operates simultaneously as a portrait, a religious image, and a statement of professional and devotional identity.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in oil on canvas, measuring 101 by 90 cm. Its medium and support follow the conventional practices of 17th-century European religious painting. The work depicts its subject, the wax modeller Simon, in the guise of St. Jerome, a common representational strategy in Baroque portraiture that merges the identity of a living individual with a venerated saint. The religious genre classification indicates a devotional or spiritually inflected approach to the sitter's portrayal, typical of the period's tendency to blur boundaries between portraiture and religious imagery.
History & Provenance
The painting Wax Modeller Simon as St. Jerome is attributed to Henrich Dittmers and dated to 1665. The work entered the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, where it remains held. Measuring 101 cm in height and 90 cm in width, it depicts Saint Jerome and is classified as a religious genre painting in oil on canvas.
The painting is held by the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, where it is recorded under the collection’s inventory system. It was accessioned by the museum prior to 2023 and remains in its holdings.
It has been exhibited by the Statens Museum for Kunst in the permanent display of Danish and European art from the seventeenth century, where it is presented as a representative religious work by Heinrich Dittmers.
Overview
Henrich Dittmers's 1665 oil painting, Wax Modeller Simon as St. Jerome, portrays a figure embodying the attributes of St. Jerome in a contemplative, Baroque-styled setting.
Artist & collection
