1987.21 de Bles, St. Jerome in the Wilderness | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

At the center of this sweeping panorama of fields, mountains, coast and sea, Saint Jerome has thrown off his cardinal’s red hat and cloak and kneels, praying to a crucifix propped up in front of him. At his feet is a skull, symbol of his meditations on the brevity of life, and his most famous attribute, a lion, which Jerome tamed by removing a thorn from its paw. While the saint is depicted in the foreground and gives the work its title, the painting’s real subject is the landscape itself: rocks, trees, boats, houses and numerous people and animals painted in granular detail, allowing the viewer to meditate on the variety of divine creation. In Italy, where he enjoyed considerable fame, Bles was known as il Civetta (the little owl), owing to the owl that often acted as his whimsical signature. Here, the bird peeps out of a small crevasse in the rockface above Saint Jerome. This painting spent many years in storage before being recently brought back to life in the museum’s conservation studio.

Excerpt from

Julien Domercq, Label text (1987.21), 2020

NOTES

5/13/2020- Covid-19 closure; Online sprint devoted to European galleries; Julien wrote or re-wrote 9 European object labels and has asked Emily Schiller to try to make this content available online by 5/17/2020. As with most content on the online collection, this text has not been edited by Queta. This text is the original draft from Julien and will be edited for interpretation standards and routed as a wall label in Fall 2020.

Catalogue essays

Artist/designers

Cultures

Geography

Process/materials

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1987.21

General Description

At the center of this sweeping panorama of fields, mountains, coast and sea, Saint Jerome has thrown off his cardinal’s red hat and cloak and kneels, praying to a crucifix propped up in front of him. At his feet is a skull, symbol of his meditations on the brevity of life, and his most famous attribute, a lion, which Jerome tamed by removing a thorn from its paw. While the saint is depicted in the foreground and gives the work its title, the painting’s real subject is the landscape itself: rocks, trees, boats, houses and numerous people and animals painted in granular detail, allowing the viewer to meditate on the variety of divine creation. In Italy, where he enjoyed considerable fame, Bles was known as il Civetta (the little owl), owing to the owl that often acted as his whimsical signature. Here, the bird peeps out of a small crevasse in the rockface above Saint Jerome. This painting spent many years in storage before being recently brought back to life in the museum’s conservation studio.