Saint Jerome and the Angel

c. 1622/1625

Simon Vouet

Painter, French, 1590 - 1649

Shown from the waist up, an elderly, balding, light-skinned man with a bushy white beard sits behind a table, facing us, in front of a winged angel who looks on in this shadowy, horizontal painting. The man sits with his body angled slightly to our right, and he turns his head to look in the opposite direction. His eyes are sunk in shadow under deeply furrowed brows, set in his lined face. His sparse, gray and white hair is tousled. He wears only a scarlet-red cloth draped across his lap and over his sinewy left arm, on our right. His open left hand is raised, palm up, at shoulder height. In his other hand, he holds a pen, hovering over a partially unwound scroll. His forearm rests on an open book beneath the scroll. He looks over his right shoulder at the curly-haired angel with snow-white wings. The angel wears a flowing, light blue robe with a golden yellow cloth draped around the chest and over the shoulders. Softly smiling, the backlit angel leans toward the man, face deep in shadow. With arms lifted, one hand gestures with a slightly crooked finger, pointing beyond the picture’s border to our left. In the other hand, the angel holds a golden horn in the dusky background behind the man’s left shoulder. Behind the man and angel and to our right, a single candle sits on two books lying in an arched wall niche. On the desk closest to us are a crumpled cloth on a book, a shiny rust-brown ball, a pair of eyeglasses, an inkpot, an hourglass, and a second book, to our right. Light coming from our upper left starkly illuminates the two people against the shadowed, earth-brown background.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 29

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 144.8 × 179.8 cm (57 × 70 13/16 in.)
    framed: 165.1 × 204.47 × 9.53 cm (65 × 80 1/2 × 3 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1961.9.52

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Cardinal Carlo Barberini [d. 1704], Rome, by 1692/1704; by descent in the Barberini family, Rome;[1] (Gabriel Sonnino, New York);[2] sold 1952 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] The Barberini inventories include three separate paintings that have been confused in the literature: one unattributed saint with an angel playing the trumpet in a vertical format, variously called Mark or Jerome; one Saint Jerome with an angel by Vouet in a square format; and finally the horizontal format Saint Jerome with an angel holding a trumpet by Vouet that can be identified as the Gallery's picture. The vertical picture appears in both the 1648-1649 inventory of Taddeo Barberini, Principe di Palestrina (d. 1647), and the 1655 inventory of his brother, Maffeo (d. 1685), who became Pope Urban VIII. The square picture appears in Cardinal Antonio's 1671 inventory and probably in his 1672 bequests, and again in the inventory of Cardinal Carlo drawn up between 1692 and 1704. The horizontal Saint Jerome first appears only in the inventory of Cardinal Carlo; see Lavin 1975, 441, VI. inv. 92-04, 337, "Un S. Girolamo con l'angelo con tromba in mano al: p.mi 7: L:9 Cornice dorata intagliata di monsù Ouuet." ("A St. Jerome with an angel holding a trumpet, 7 palms high, 9 wide, [in a] gilded carved frame, by Mr. Vouet.") Since the horizontal and square pictures are both listed, in two separate rooms, in Carlo's inventory of 1692/1704, they are clearly two separate paintings. For the other inventories, see Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art, New York, 1975: V inv. 48-49, 417; VII inv. 55, 210; VI inv. 92-04, 337; IV inv. 71, 330; IV hered 72, 125; VI. inv. 92-04, 123. Active collectors, the Barberini could have acquired the painting at any moment during the 17th century, and the question of patronage for the Saint Jerome remains open. The "St Mathieu de Mr. Vouet," which Robert de Cotte reported seeing in the Barberini palace at Palestrina around 1689 has been connected with the Gallery's picture, but it could have been the square version; see Jacques Thuillier, "Pour un 'Corpus Poussinianum'," in André Chastel, ed., Actes du colloque international Nicolas Poussin: Paris, 19-21 septembre 1958, 2 vols., Paris, 1960: 2:205.
[2] See the letter from Ettore Sestieri to William Suida, 2 February 1952, copy in NGA curatorial files.
[3] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1846.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1961

  • Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1961-1962, no. 133, repro.

1974

  • Breion de Lavergnée, Arnauld, and Jean-Pierre Cuzin, Valentin et les caravagesques francais, (Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais.) Paris, 1974: 204, 205, 226, 255 (French ed.); 198, 218, 248 (Italian ed.).

1982

  • Opperman, H. N. Jean-Baptiste Oudry 1686-1755. (Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais.) Paris, 1982: 335-336, no. 117, color repro.

  • France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, 1982, no. 117, repro.

1999

  • Caravaggio's 'The Taking of Christ': Saints and Sinners in Baroque Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999, brochure, no. 5, repro.

2008

  • Simon Vouet (les années italiennes 1613/1617), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes; Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon, 2008-2009, no. 21, repro.

2012

  • Caravaggio and His Legacy, Musée Fabre, Montpellier; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 2012-2013, no. 28, repro.

2018

  • Utrecht, Caravaggio and Europe, Centraal Museum, Utrecht; Bayerisches Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 2018-2019, no. 15, repro.

Bibliography

1935

  • Longhi, Roberto. “I pittori della realta in Francia.” L’Italia Letteraria (Jan. 19, 1935). Reprinted in Paragone 269 (July 1972): 1935 Longhi: 6, fig. 9; 1972 reprint: 10, fig. 8.

1943

  • Longhi, Roberto. “Ultimi studi sul Caravaggio e la Cerchia.” Proporzioni; studi di storia dell’arte 1 (1943): 32, 56 n. 76, fig. 75.

1951

  • Pauwels, Henri. “Nieuwe Toeschrijvingen bij het oeuvre van Hendrik Ter Brugghen.” Gentse
    Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis     13 (1951): 161 – 162, fig. 5.

1954

  • Zeri, Federico. La galleria e la collezione Barberini. Rome, 1954: 7, no. 89, repro.

1955

  • Réau, Louis._ Iconographie de l’art chrétien_. 3 vols. Paris, 1955 – 1959: 3, part 2(1958):748.

1956

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 202, no. 80, repro.

  • Walker, John. "National Gallery of Art, Washington." Washington, 1956: 202, no. 80, repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): 16-17, repro.

1958

  • Nicolson, Benedict. Hendrick Terbrugghen. London, 1958: 130, no. E118.

  • Picard, Yves. La vie et l’oeuvre de Simon Vouet. 2 vols. Paris, 1958 – 1962: 1 (1958): 25, no. 9.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 336, repro.

  • Manning, Robert L. “Some Important Paintings by Simon Vouet in America.” In Studies
    in the History of Art Dedicated to William E. Suida on His Eightieth Birthday    . New York, 1959: 294, fig. 1.

  • National Gallery of Art. "Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection" 2nd ed. Washington, 1959: 336, repro.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 141-142, repro. pl. 133.

1962

  • Crelly, William R. The Painting of Simon Vouet, New Haven and London, 1962: 43-44, 47, 222, no.153, fig. 25.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 138.

  • Dargent, Georgette, and Jacques Thuillier. “Simon Vouet en Italie: essai de
    catalogue critique.” SaggMem 4 (1965): 43 – 44, no. A15, pl. 32.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 125, repro.

1974

  • Brejon de Lavergnée, Arnauld and Jean Pierre Cuzin. "Valentin et les caravagesques français." (Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais.) Paris, 1974: 204, 205, 226, 255 (French ed.): 198, 218, 248 (Italian ed.)

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 370, repro.

  • Lavin, Marilyn Aronberg. Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art.
    New York, 1975: 441, VI.inv.92–04, no. 337.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 312-313, no. 412, color repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 259-261, fig. 244.

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 71, pl. 57.

  • Nicolson, Benedict. The International Caravaggesque Movement: Lists of Pictures by Caravaggio and His Followers throughout Europe from 1590 to 1650. Oxford, 1979: 109.

  • Watson, Ross. "National Gallery of Art. London, 1979: 71, pl. 57, color repro.

1982

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. "La peinture français du XVI siècle dans les collections américaines." (Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago.) Paris, 1982: 335-336, no. 117, color repro.. English ed. "France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections." New York, 1982.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 313, no. 409, color repro.

  • Walker, John. "National Gallery of Art, Washington." New York, 1984: 313, no. 409, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 429, repro.

1992

  • Walmsley, Elizabeth, and Diane De Grazia. "A propos des radiographs du Saint Jérôme et l'ange de la National Gallery of Art de Washington." In Simon Vouet: Actes du colloque international, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 5-6-7 février 1991. Stéphane Loire, ed. Paris, 1992: 107-122.

  • Schleier, Erich. “Lanfranco, Perrier, Simon et Aubin Vouet: quelques points de contact.” In Loire 1992: 212.

1997

  • Bon Valsassina, Caterina. “Una proposta per il periodo romano di Simon Vouet.” In Scritti in onore di Alessandro Marabottini. Ed. Gioacchino Barbera, Teresa Pugliatti, and Caterina Zappia. Rome, 1997: 187 – 192, fig. 2.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 182, no. 142, color repro.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 96, 455-460, color repro.

2022

  • Gill, Meredith J., and William E. Wallace. "The Final Calling." Artibus et historiae. 43 (2022): 209-220, figs. 1 and 8 (x-radiograph).

Inscriptions

lower left, possibly an inventory number: F 23 [or possibly 25]
O stretcher: printed and written paper label, "NGA 1415, K. 450, ST. JEROME, K49, VARNISH, applied on Dec., 1955, a special varnish readily soluble in petroleum hydrocarbons. It is avisable that the treatment of the surface coating be done only with the knowledge of persons familiar with this spacial material. M. Modestini, Curator, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York 19, N.Y. K 1891 Vouet." On back of lining fabric: large patch of old lining fabric with illegible stamps, presumably customs stamps, one is a cicular label (4cm diam) and the other has three lines of text (2x6 cm).

Wikidata ID

Q20177014

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