Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

At first glance, Saint Jerome’s study evokes romantic associations with scholarly coziness and retreat. The mesmerizing, dappled patterns cast on the wall by sunlight flooding the window wells reinforce this impression with palpable warmth. At the same time, the engraving also has an undeniably elegiac, perhaps even slightly menacing under-chord. The large skull, hefty sandglass, and wrinkled gourd with its sharp, sprawling offshoots all invoke life’s transience. The cult of Jerome, the Bible’s translator and a humanist icon, blossomed throughout sixteenth-century Europe. Dürer produced at least five prints of Jerome, more than of any other saint. This engraving’s scholarly theme and formal virtuosity made it a perfect acquisition in honor of Professor Thimme, who helped to build the museum’s Dürer collection.