Saint Jerome in his study. Oil painting by a follower of Albrecht Dürer.

1 painting : oil on wood ; wood 41.9 x 29.2 cm

Wellcome Collection 44769i

The sources for this painting are two works by Albrecht Dürer: (1) a painting of Saint Jerome, 1521 (Museo de Arte Antigua, Lisbon) which uses both the same half-length format and melancholy pose of the saint and objects symbolic of death and judgment; and (2) an engraving of Saint Jerome in his study, 1514, its influence being the candlestick holding an extinguished candle. The present painting is also based on a work by Joos van Cleve in which the composition is borrowed from the painting by Durer and works by Marinus Van Reymerswaele. The present work is very close to a painting by Cleve offered for sale at Christie's, London, 22 April 1994, lot 4: see M. Friedlander, Early Netherlandish painting, vol. IX, Pt 1, p. 58, no. 39, pl. 57, for examples by Joos van Cleve. The skull is on its side in the van Cleve and in the Wellcome example. A related painting is (2007) at the Royal College of Defence Studies, Seaford House, Belgrave Square. London, and other related works are elsewhere.