Saint Jerome

This small double-sided painting was most probably made for private worship. The front shows Saint Jerome kneeling in front of a crucifix wedged into the stump of a tree. He beats his chest with a rock in empathy with Christ’s Passion (his torture and death at the Crucifixion). The lion resting beside him was his companion from the moment he removed a thorn from its foot.

Dürer’s version of the desert – or wilderness – in which the saint lived for years is particularly northern European. The grasses and flowers around his knees, for example, are closely observed and include a number of different varieties. Two little goldfinches perch by the edge of a stream, one drinking from it (the bird was traditionally a symbol of Christ’s Passion).

The reverse depicts a dark sky and what might be planets, a comet or meteorite or an eclipse, possibly a reference to Saint John the Evangelist’s descriptions of the end of the world as recorded in the Book of Revelation.

Text © The National Gallery, London

Painting photographed in its frame by Google Arts & Culture, 2023.