1610 (ca.), El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), Saint Jerome as a Scholar -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: One of the four Doctors of the Western Church, Saint Jerome (ca. 342-420) was a venerated biblical scholar. The open text before him alludes to his role as the translator of the Bible into Latin (known as the Vulgate). Dressed in a cardinal's robes, the saint is portrayed with a haggard appearance, commonly found in depictions of Jerome as a penitent in the wilderness. El Greco developed a novel fusion of the two most significant facets of Jerome's character: the scholar and the ascetic. One of several paintings of Saint Jerome by the artist (another is in the Frick Collection, New York), this work exemplifies El Greco's use of elongated and exaggerated figural proportions.
Link to a high-resolution close-up photo of details from this painting.
1610 (ca.), El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), Saint Jerome as a Scholar -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: One of the four Doctors of the Western Church, Saint Jerome (ca. 342-420) was a venerated biblical scholar. The open text before him alludes to his role as the translator of the Bible into Latin (known as the Vulgate). Dressed in a cardinal's robes, the saint is portrayed with a haggard appearance, commonly found in depictions of Jerome as a penitent in the wilderness. El Greco developed a novel fusion of the two most significant facets of Jerome's character: the scholar and the ascetic. One of several paintings of Saint Jerome by the artist (another is in the Frick Collection, New York), this work exemplifies El Greco's use of elongated and exaggerated figural proportions.
Link to a high-resolution close-up photo of details from this painting.