Saint Jerome | MSK Gent
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Saint Jerome

  • oak (wood)
  • 186.5 x 55 x 40 cm
  • Inv. 1918-AW

Public Domain

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In the Southern Netherlands we often find examples of seventeenth-century religious sculpture in the churches themselves. Many richly decorated original gothic altars, choir stalls and pulpits, as well as separate sculptures, were lost in the iconoclasm. Many of them were replaced with baroque sculpture. The origins of the larger than life statue of Jerome is not known. It represents the half-naked standing figure of the saint holding a papyrus scroll in his right hand. St. Jerome was a respected Church Father. He wrote a Latin translation of the Bible, symbolised here by the papyrus scroll. Later he became a hermit in the desert. The skull in his left hand, a symbol of the transience of life, reminds us of his life as a hermit. The sculpture is attributed to Artus Quellinus II, who worked mainly in Antwerp.

Artist

Artus II Quellinus RKD Wikidata
Sint-Truiden 1625 - Antwerp 1700
attributed to

Title Saint Jerome
Period 17th century
Collection sculpture AAT
Object type oak (wood) AAT
Inventory number 1918-AW
Acquisition credit gift
Casier, Joseph
1918
Current whereabouts Work on display
Permalink https://mskgent.be/collection/work/data/1918-AW
IIIF Manifest https://imagehub.mskgent.be/iiif/3/773/manifest.json
Art & Architecture Thesaurus 300055874 religious symbolism AAT
Keywords Iconclass 11H saints Iconclass
11H(JEROME) the monk and hermit Jerome (Hieronymus); possible attributes: book, cardinal's hat, crucifix, hour-glass, lion, skull, stone Iconclass
31A the (nude) human figure; 'Corpo humano' (Ripa) Iconclass
31A2 anatomy (non-medical) Iconclass
31A211 (human) skull Iconclass
31A231 standing figure Iconclass
31A2311 'contrapposto', 'Standbein und Spielbein' Iconclass
31A534 beard Iconclass
31A71 male sex; man Iconclass
31D14 adult man Iconclass
41D2339 barefoot Iconclass
49L64 materials to write on, writing surfaces Iconclass
49L642 papyrus (writing material) Iconclass
School / Style Baroque AAT
Oude Meesters uit het Museum voor schone Kunsten Gent in de crypte van de Sint-Baafskathedraal. - Gent : Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent, 2004 (s.p., cat. 36)
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