St. Jerome in the Wilderness

Artist Antonio Castillo y Saavedra (Spanish, 1616–1668)

Dateca. 1650

MediumReed pen and iron gall ink on laid paper

DimensionsImage/Sheet: 11 1/2 × 8 3/8 inches (29.2 × 21.3 cm);
Backing paper: 11 3/4 × 8 5/8 inches (29.8 × 21.9 cm)

ClassificationsDrawings

Credit LineGift of Quinto Maganini

Terms

Drawings
Pen and ink
Animals
Crucifixes
Landscapes
Lions
Saints
Trees

Object number56.517

Label CopyScholar, theologian, and translator of the Bible into the Latin vulgate, St. Jerome also spent a period of five years as a hermit in the desert of Chalcis (present day Syria). In this drawing by one of the great figures of the Spanish baroque, the penitent saint is shorn of all of his usual attributes, save a lion from whose paw he pulled a thorn. Castillo often worked in a manner likely learned from artists in nearby Seville with a pen cut from a common reed. Castillo’s fondness for the subject bordered on obsession; at least nine St. Jerome drawings survive. This one reworks a version from the previous decade: here, Castillo has reconsidered the subject to render the saint more alert and engaging, the lion more actively on guard.

Like Jan Lievens’s take on St. Jerome (2000.143.005), Castillo has also portrayed the hermit saint as an elderly man. Yet, Castillo’s Jerome does not droop with the weight of devotion. Rather, the subtle, rhythmic strokes of the saint’s nude body and drapery lend an air of fervent devotion.

(“Undressed: The Nude in Context, 1500-1750,” text by Andrew C. Weislogel and presented at the Johnson Museum February 9-June 16, 2019)

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