Saint Jerome in Penitence

Label

The hermit Saint Jerome was credited with translating the Bible into Latin, which made him especially popular among scholarly audiences in 15th-century Italy. Depicted as haggard and only partially clothed, Jerome raises a rock to beat himself in penitence before a statue of the crucified Christ. On the ground before him is his cardinal’s hat and a lion, from whose paw he miraculously pulled a thorn. Made in terracotta, this relief imitates the look of stone, a remarkable feat. While scenes of Jerome in the wilderness were common in this period, this relief includes the additional detail of a witness dressed in monk’s robes looking through a doorway in the upper left. This man suggests that the original audience was a monk, who could have looked upon Jerome as a model of devotion and self-denial.

From the 2024 exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art, and Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Course History

ARTH 84, Media and Meaning in Renaissance Sculpture, Adrian Randolph, Fall 2013

HIST 43.02, European Intellectual and Cultural History 1400-1800, Darrin McMahon, Fall 2019

ITAL 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Damiano Benvegnu, Fall 2021

ARTH 27.02, Living Stone: Sculpture in Early Modern Italy, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Winter 2022

SART 16.01, Sculpture I, Matt Seigle, Winter 2022

SART 16, Sculpture I, Matt Seigle, Spring 2022

ITAL 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Giorgio Alberti, Fall 2022

ITAL 1.02, Introductory Italian I, Andrea Zoller, Fall 2022

ITAL 1.03, Introductory Italian I, Andrea Zoller, Fall 2022

Italian 1.02, Introductory Italian I, Andrea Zoller, Winter 2023

Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Giorgio Alberti, Winter 2023

Italian 11.01, Intensive Italian, Giorgio Alberti, Winter 2023

Art History 7.05, Pompeii: Antique & Modern, Ada Cohen, Winter 2023

Italian 2.01, Introductory Italian II, Andrea Zoller, Winter 2023

Italian 2.02, Introductory Italian II, Matteo Gilebbi, Winter 2023

Exhibition History

Art for Dartmouth, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 31, 2019-January 12, 2020.

European Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 30, 2008-March 8, 2009.

From Altarpiece to Portrait: Assembling a European Collection, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-September 6, 2020.

Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 12, 2020-February 12, 2024.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 15, 2008.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 20, 2009-present.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 22, 1995-June 22, 1997.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 16, 1997-August 8, 1999.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26, 2003-August 13, 2006.

Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 3, 1999-July 28, 2002.

Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, Citrin Family Gallery and Engles Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23, 2024–March 22, 2025.

Renaissance and Mannerist Plaquettes and Medals from the Collection of Roger Arvid Anderson, Class of 1968, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 19-November 21, 2013.

Publication History

Leo Planiscig, Venezianische Bildhauer de Renaissance, Vienna: Anton Schroll & Co., 1921, pp. 170-72, ill. 188.

T. Barton Thurber, "European Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art", Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2008, pp. 39, ill., no. 7.

Roger Arvid Anderson, The Roger Arvid Anderson Collection, Medals, Medallions, Plaquettes and Small Reliefs, Paintings, Sculpture, Works on Paper and Textiles, San Francisco: Roger Arvid Anderson (published privately), design by David L. Wilson, 2015, p. 248-249.

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 83, ill. plate no. 14.

Provenance

Collection of Dr. Rudolph Berl, Vienna, by 1921; with Blumka Gallery, New York, New York, date unknown; sold to Roger Arvid Anderson, San Francisco, date unknown; lent to present collection, 1995; given to present collection, 2016.

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