Cima da Conegliano

Cima, Giovanni Battista

Venetian, c. 1459 - 1517 or 1518

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A balding, bare-chested man with a long white beard kneels on a dirt ground to our right in front of a rocky cave opening in this vertical painting. The man holds a rock in one hand and looks up at a man hanging on a cross to the left. The kneeling man, Saint Jerome, has peach-colored skin and a fringe of gray hair. He has a rounded nose, deep-set eyes, a prominent brow, hollow cheekbones, and his lips are parted to reveal two teeth. His body is angled to our left, and he looks up in that direction with blue eyes. His sleeveless, long, powder-blue garment is taken off one shoulder to reveal his chest, and one bare foot sticks out under the hem of the robe behind him. A lion lies under the cave opening, which towers over Saint Jerome and continues off the top edge of the painting. The crucifix is opposite Saint Jerome. The haloed, mostly nude man hanging on the cross is about half the size of Saint Jerome, and has pale skin, brown hair, and a white loincloth across his hips. The wooden cross is braced by rocks. A black snake emerges from a crevice near the base of the cross and appears to head for Saint Jerome. A vivid blue river is glimpsed just beyond this rocky bit of land. Trees and a hill on the far side frame a deep, grassy expanse that leads back to a walled town and pale blue mountains along the horizon. A few white clouds skim across a pale blue sky in the top left quadrant of the painting. The artist signed the work as if he had written his name on a scroll of paper propped up in front of Saint Jerome’s knee, in the bottom right corner of the painting: “Joannis b pt C.”
Cima da Conegliano, Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, c. 1500/1505, oil on panel transferred to canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.168

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness

Cima da Conegliano · c. 1500/1505 · oil on panel transferred to canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.168

A pale-skinned woman stands holding a cross in front of a deep landscape in this vertical painting. The woman’s body faces us but she tips her head to our right and looks off in that direction with light brown, wide-set, large eyes. She has a long, straight nose, pale pink lips, and a square jawline. Her thick blond hair is pulled back and curls fall alongside her face and fall down to her shoulders. She wears a gold crown and gold breastplate ornamented with pearls and gems. Her lapis-blue gown is slit along the long sleeves and puffs of white linen are pulled through the openings. A carnation-red robe drapes over one shoulder and across her hips. She is barefoot, and both hands brace the tall cross to her right, our left. A tall, spindly tree with only a few leaves in its sparce canopy stands just behind her to our right. She stands on a grassy hill, and a path leads back to a town. More grassy, tree-lined hills behind her rise to another town outlined against the pale blue sky. A few clouds trundle across the sky and more are streaked across the pink horizon, which comes about halfway up this composition.
Cima da Conegliano, Saint Helena, c. 1495, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.12

Saint Helena

Cima da Conegliano · c. 1495 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.12

A woman holding a baby, who stands on her lap, is flanked by two men in a deep landscape in this horizontal painting. At the center of the composition, the woman sits behind a stone ledge. Her pale-skinned, oval face tips to our left, and she looks down and to our right with brown eyes. She has a long, straight nose, round cheeks, a slight double chin, and her pale lips are closed. A white cloth drapes over a translucent veil that covers her forehead. Her indigo-colored dress is edged with gold writing and ornamental designs against a red and black background. A parchment-brown cloth is tied as a belt under her bust. The nude child with notably pale skin stands on one of her knees, and she holds his other foot with one hand. Her other hand braces his chest, and he holds onto that thumb. His other hand is held up with the thumb and first two fingers raised toward the man to our left, at whom he looks. A halo, drawn as a thin gold line, encircles his blond curls. He has chubby cheeks and thighs but looks seriously at the man to our left. Both men have tanned skin, and they face inward, almost in profile. They are shown from about the hips up on the far side of the stone ledge. The man to our left is balding with a long, white beard. Wrinkles line his forehead and cheeks. He looks off to our right with shadowed eyes, and he has a hooked nose. He wears a tan garment under an ultramarine-blue cloak, which drops from one shoulder and wraps around his hips. He holds one hand to his chest and the other palm up. To our right, the second man looks to our left with deep-set eyes. He has high cheekbones, a straight nose, and his lips are parted. Copper-brown hair falls in shaggy curls to his shoulders, and he has a full, red beard. His hands are together in prayer in front of his chest, and a tall thin stick with a narrow crossbeam to make a cross is tucked into one elbow. His voluminous, carnation-pink robe almost covers a brown, shaggy garment beneath. Beyond the group, rocky cliffs lead back to a castle-like structure to our left and grassy, tree-dotted hills roll into the distance to our right. Pale gray and white clouds drift across a violet-purple and blue-streaked sky across the top quarter of the composition. The artist signed the work as if he had carved into the stone ledge in front of Mary: “IOANNES BAPTISTA PINXIT.”
Cima da Conegliano, Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist, c. 1492/1495, oil on poplar panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.33

Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist

Cima da Conegliano · c. 1492/1495 · oil on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.33

Bibliography

1959

  • Coletti, Luigi. Cima da Conegliano. Venice, 1959.

1981

  • Menegazzi, Luigi. Cima da Conegliano. Treviso, 1981.

1983

  • Humfrey, Peter. Cima da Conegliano. Cambridge, England, 1983.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 201.