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Hieronymus in zijn studeervertrek
Marinus van Reymerswaele
1541
Hieronymus in zijn studeervertrek
Marinus van Reymerswaele
1541
St. Jerome worked from 382 to 385 as a secretary and translator of the Bible for Damasus, the bishop of Rome. After the bishop’s death, St. Jerome was very disappointed not to be chosen as his successor. So he returned to Bethlehem to live an ascetic life. Besides translating the Bible into the vernacular, St. Jerome wrote exegetist and theological works. He also left behind several critical polemics and 117 letters.
St. Jerome was very popular with humanist scholars, who sometimes had themselves portrayed as St. Jerome. He is depicted here with a cardinal’s hat, which refers to his position with the bishop of Rome (although the position of cardinal did not exist at the time), and a skull and hourglass as symbols of mortality. On the lectern, there is a book of hours with a miniature of the Last Judgement on the left-hand page. The figures on this miniature follow a well-known engraving from the Small Passion by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528).
