Artwork
Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome is an oil painting by the Northern Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder. It dates from 1549 and is held in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
As a piece of religious art, the image serves to visualize Jerome's withdrawal from society for spiritual contemplation and penance.
This 1549 oil painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder portrays Saint Jerome, a central figure in Christian hagiography. The work specifically depicts the saint in the wilderness, a traditional setting that emphasizes his life as a hermit and ascetic. As a piece of religious art, the image serves to visualize Jerome's withdrawal from society for spiritual contemplation and penance.
The composition focuses entirely on the main subject within this isolated natural environment, adhering to iconographic conventions that associate the saint with solitude and devotion away from the secular world.
Technique & Style
The work is an oil painting executed on a lime wooden panel. Cranach employed layered oil glazes to achieve subtle tonal transitions, a hallmark of Northern Renaissance technique. The composition presents Jerome in the wilderness with meticulous attention to drapery and anatomical precision, reflecting the stylized realism characteristic of the period. The surface condition remains stable, with no recorded interventions noted in the collection records.
History & Provenance
Lucas Cranach the Elder painted Saint Jerome in 1549, an oil work portraying Jerome in the wilderness. The painting entered the Bavarian State Painting Collections and has been housed in the Alte Pinakothek since its acquisition. Its creation was recorded in 1549, and it remains part of the Alte Pinakothek's collection in Munich.
The work Saint Jerome by Lucas Cranach the Elder is held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections at the Alte Pinakothek, where it is catalogue-listed under inventory number 2682. It entered the collection as part of the Alte Pinakothek's holdings and has been displayed in exhibitions of German Renaissance art at the same institution, including a 2015 showcase of Cranach's religious works.
Overview
Created in 1549, this oil on canvas by Lucas Cranach the Elder portrays the Christian scholar Saint Jerome. The work is part of the collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, where it is displayed among other works of the German Renaissance.
Context
Saint Jerome reflects the continued popularity of hagiographic subjects in Northern Renaissance art, especially within the Lutheran territories where Cranach worked. The inclusion of the lion and crucifix aligns with contemporary iconographic conventions, while the naturalistic landscape demonstrates the artist’s integration of Italianate influences into Germanic visual traditions.
Artist & collection
Artist
Lucas Cranach the Elder was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving.
