St. Jerome in his Study in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2009

Artist: Albrecht Dürer (German, Nuremberg 1471 - 1528 Nuremberg)

Title: Saint Jerome in His Study

Date: 1514

Medium: Engraving

Dimensions: sheet: 9 11/16 x 7 7/16 in. (24.6 x 18.9 cm) trimmed on plate line

Classification: Print

Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1919

Accession Number: 19.73.68


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/drawin...

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St. Jerome in his Study

St. Jerome who translated the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate) and was thus and exemplar of the Christian scholar, is seated in a study typical of that in Durer’s day. He works peacefully at a tilted writing table while his lion and dog slumber in the foreground. The light of his halo and the sunlight pouring in through the windows are in perfect equilibrium, and recurrent horizontals in the composition add to the pervasive sense of repose and harmony.

The gourd hanging from the ceiling is an ironic allusion to a philosophical controversy resulting from Jerome’s translation of the biblical phrase, “gourd bower” as “ivy bower.”


Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.