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St Jerome in His Study After Domenico Ghirlandaio Oil on canvas, 17th c. |
The cardinal’s hat reminds the viewer of Jerome’s services to Pope Damasus and his role in revising the 'Vulgate' version of the Bible between AD 382 and 385.
To reiterate his learnedness a pair of spectacles (of fictitious design with lacquered wood frames) is seen hooked to his desk.
Since, to many, Jerome was the quintessential scholar, numerous paintings portray him as a studious cardinal in ecclesiastical red robes. (In order to elevate him to the same status and rank as the other church fathers, Jerome received the anachronistic title of cardinal in the twelfth century and was often depicted as such from the mid-fourteenth century onwards). Furthermore, he wears spectacles (even though he lived eight hundred years before their invention), and has close at hand a pen, ink scrolls of paper, and books.
The original version, from which the BOA Museum’s picture is derived, is a fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio, painted for the nave of the church of the Ognissanti, Florence, in 1480. It was removed when the choir was dismantled in 1564, and is now in the left-hand aisle, between the third and fourth altar of the church. The artist's other works demonstrate that he was interested in optical effects; for instance the frescoes in the Santa Maria Novella are notable because he took full account of the incoming daylight, which passed through stained glass that he himself had provided in the interest of chromatic harmony.