Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Saint Jerome in His Study, 1514 |

Etching, 10 1/4 × 8 7/8 in. (26 × 22.6 cm) |

Gift of Francis Boland |
1971.8.22 

 

This print depicts Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin. Dürer pictures him at work at the back of an illuminated study filled with various animals and inanimate objects. Along with Knight, Death, and the Devil and the artist’s famed Melencholia I, Saint Jerome in His Study is part of Dürer’s “Meisterstiche” series. Scholars have read Melencholia I as a representation of artistic frustration and, thereby, a self-portrait of Dürer himself. Saint Jerome in His Study can be seen in the same way. Offset by a halo, the saint’s writing—like Dürer’s etchings—appears to generate the worldly microcosm before him. Dürer made multiple editions of this print, but this particular example was printed posthumously under unknown circumstances. As a multiple and one printed after the artist’s death, the print thus begs questions about the nature and value of “authenticity."