Saint Jerome (c. 1621): Art, History and Details

Saint Jerome (c. 1621) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Hendrick ter Brugghen (Dutch, 1588–1629).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Saint Jerome
• Date: c. 1621
• Creator attribution: Hendrick ter Brugghen (Dutch, 1588–1629)
• Culture: Flanders
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• 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.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1977.2

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisition Press Release,” May 20, 1977, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.