Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510)
San Girolamo (Saint Jerome)
c.1498–1505
Tempera on canvas (transferred from panel), 44.5 x 26 cm
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Botticelli’s work originally consisted of four parts: the two central ones carrying an Annunciation scene and the side wings with figures of Saint Dominic and Saint Jerome. In 1928 the central element, the Annunciation, was transferred to Moscow and is now in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. In Botticelli’s painting Jerome is shown kneeling before a crucifix holding a stone that he has been using to mortify the flesh. His body is covered only by a lilac-pink wrap. Lying on the tree stump are a book and a skull, a symbol of the transience of life, while hanging by the entrance to the cave is a red hat, a sign of his being a cardinal. The figure of the saint is treated in a fairly flat manner. The chief means of expression, as always with Botticelli, is the tense, nervous line that predominates over volume. The scene is taking place against the background of a stylized landscape. Botticelli produced Saint Jerome in the late period of his career, when his view of the world changed and so, accordingly, did his manner of painting. After being the court painter of the rulers of Florence, the Medici family, he became a participant in the city’s political and religious conflicts associated with the ascendancy of the ascetic monk Girolamo Savonarola, who called for the moral purification of society. (SHM)
Pair:
Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510)
San Domenico
c.1498–1505
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg