St. Jerome in Penitence

The story of St. Jerome from the New Testament describes a life of scholarly rigor and religious devotion: at various stages in his life, Jerome lived as a hermit; served as secretary to Pope Damasus I; founded a monastery; and, not least, translated the Hebrew bible into Latin (the Vulgate). A popular subject, St. Jerome was frequently depicted as a penitent hermit.Jan Lievens offers us a solitary Jerome in despair, diminished within a dark enclosure. A feeble old man, arms and legs withered, he sits slumped and naked save for a cloth on his lap, gazing downward at the crucifix before him. He is surrounded by some of his attributes—the bishop’s hat above him alongside an hourglass; the closed Bible spine facing forward as if closed to him—but makes no use of them. On the ground lie his abandoned slippers, a walking stick and begging bowl. Despite the sense of spiritual desolation, St. Jerome’s head shines with a bursting halo of radiant and radiating light. In this dark print, Lievens leaves this crescent of the etching plate untouched and brilliant, where no mark, and no word, are needed. (“Undressed: The Nude in Context, 1500-1750,” text by Lisa Pincus and presented at the Johnson Museum February 9-June 16, 2019)