After José Ribera, “Saint Jerome Hearing the Trumpet of the Last Judgment” 17th century

Oil on canvas. From the 17th-century Spanish School. This Baroque-style oil painting depicts Saint Jerome in penitence, listening to the trumpet of the Last Judgment. The composition centers on Saint Jerome in a hermitic setting, portrayed as a gaunt old man with a white beard and a semi-nude torso, his head turned upwards in a look of astonishment. The saint wears a striking and voluminous crimson cloak that covers his legs and unfurls in pronounced folds. In his right hand, he holds a quill pen with which he writes on a rolled parchment resting on a table, where several thick books, an inkwell, and a human skull—a classic symbol of meditation on death—also lie. Behind the table stands a wooden cross made of bound branches.

At the top, emerging from dark clouds, is a winged angel draped in pink fabrics, sounding a trumpet. In the lower left corner, hidden in the shadows beneath the rocks, the head of a lion is visible, the principal iconographic attribute traditionally associated with the saint in the desert. The painting technique shows a clear influence of the school of José de Ribera and of tenebrism, employing strong chiaroscuro that dramatically illuminates the realistic anatomy of the old man, the folds of the red cloak, and the sacred objects against the profound darkness of the background.

Size: 208 x 145 cm.

Provenance: Private collection in Granada.

Literature:

It is published in the book “Cuadernos de arte. Universidad de Granada”; Cuad. Art. Gr., 35, 2004, pp. 295–296. In: María de la Encarnación Cambil Hernández, “A Penitent Saint Jerome, Inspired by a Print by José de Ribera”; pp. 293–306.

A restoration study by “Restuaro Van Dyck” from 1994 is attached.