1639
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Saint Jerome is a 1639 unspecified by Jusepe de Ribera, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see an old man kneeling in a cave, half-naked, holding a rock to his chest and staring at a skull. Ribera painted this in Naples, far from Spain, yet the sharp light and deep shadows feel like the Spanish sun. The saint’s wrinkled skin and dirty feet look real enough to touch—no halo, just a man in pain. If you like how the light carves the figure out of darkness, look up chiaroscuro.
Saint Jerome (about ad 347–420) translated biblical texts into Latin. Although he sometimes appears as a scholar in his study, Ribera represents him here as a penitent who withdrew to the desert, beating his chest with a stone to emulate Christ’s suffering and contemplating a skull symbolizing human vanity. Working in Naples, Ribera enthusiastically adapted Caravaggio’s characteristic use of light and dark and naturalistic models.
Ribera signed the painting on the spine of the book in which Jerome will write.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jusepe de Ribera (Valencian: ; baptised 17 February 1591 – 3 November 1652) was a Spanish painter and printmaker.
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