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Saint Jerome
Hendrick ter Brugghenc. 1621
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
Not all subjects are easy to identify. This museum long thought that the subject was the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, largely because tears are part of the standard representation of this ancient thinker. However, ter Brugghen omits the other crucial key to identifying Heraclitus--a globe over which he weeps. Instead, the book and skull indicate that the figure is Saint Jerome, known for translating the Bible into Latin. The artist probably chose to show Jerome crying to intensify his penitence.
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Details
- Title: Saint Jerome
- Creator: Hendrick ter Brugghen (Dutch, 1588-1629)
- Date Created: c. 1621
- Physical Dimensions: Framed: 149.2 x 125.4 x 8.3 cm (58 3/4 x 49 3/8 x 3 1/4 in.); Painted surface: 125.5 x 102 cm (49 7/16 x 40 3/16 in.); Tacking margins of oritinal fabric let out: 131.5 x 107 cm (51 3/4 x 42 1/8 in.); Former: 148 x 124.1 x 7 cm (58 1/4 x 48 7/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
- Provenance: Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn (Wynnstay, Denbighshire, Wales) (sold, Wyngetts Auction Galleries, Wrexem, Wales, May 12, 1971, lot 489, as "Anonymous: Man Reading with Human Skull at Side," to Trafalgar Galleries)., Trafalgar Galleries (London, England), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1977.
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.2
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Inscriptions: Signed and dated upside down on open book: "H TBrugghen 1621"
- Department: European Painting and Sculpture
- Culture: Flanders, 17th century
- Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
- Accession Number: 1977.2
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