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Overview

Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena, skilled in painting, drawing, architecture, writing, and sculpture, exemplified the multitalented "Renaissance man." Here he brings out the pictorial possibilities of bronze. Under a bare tree, amid ruins from the ancient Roman culture that Jerome had loved, the penitent saint is rendered in high relief, but his far arm seems to fade into the delicately manipulated background. The saint's traditional companion, the lion (from whose paw he had removed a thorn) drinks from a stream that winds toward a monastery on a distant hill. Tiny birds, a snake, a lizard, a tortoise, and a scorpion — each symbolizing an aspect of Jerome's experience — inhabit the flickering landscape.

Marks and Labels

Reverse lower right corner bears inverted, neatly incised lettering XVIII M, of indeterminate date, and remains of paper label to receive French customs export approval stamp.

Provenance

Eugène Piot [1812-1890];[1] (sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 25-30 April 1864, no. 25, as by Bertoldi); Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914]; his estate; purchased 1930 with the entire Dreyfus collection by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold 1944 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1957 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1878
L'Art ancien, Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878, no. 138.
1932
Renaissance Sculpture and Medals from the Collection of Gustave Dreyfus, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932, no catalogue.
1993
Francesco di Giorgio e il Rinascimento a Siena 1450-1500, Chiesa di Sant'Agostino, Siena, Italy, 1993, no. 28, repro., as San Girolamo nel deserto.
2007
Renaissance Siena: Art for a City, National Gallery, London, 2007-2008, no. 26, repro., as Saint Jerome in Penitence.
2016
Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, The Met Breuer, New York, 2016, no. 5, repro.

Bibliography

1878
Piot, Eugène. "La sculpture a L'Exposition Rétrospective du Trocadéro." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 2d ser., 18 (October 1878): 588, as by Bertoldo.
1879
Piot, Eugène. L’Exposition universelle de 1878: L’art ancien. Paris, 1879: 143, as by Bertoldo.
1901
Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell'Arte Italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 6(1908):518.
1908
Migeon, Gaston. "La collection de M. Gustave Dreyfus, V: Les plaquettes." Les Arts 80 (August 1908): 18, 23, as attributed to Bertoldo.
1923
Venturi, Adolfo. "Francesco di Giorgio Martini scultore." L'Arte 26 (1923): 213-214, as Francesco di Giorgio (earliest current attribution).
1924
Venturi, Adolfo. L'Arte a San Girolamo. Milan, 1924: 168-169.
1925
Bode, Wilhelm von. Bertoldo und Lorenzo dei Medici. Freiburg, 1925: 76-78, as by Bertoldo.
1925
Vaudoyer, Jean-Louis. “La collection Gustave Dreyfus.” L’Amour de l’Art 6, no. 7 (1925): 257, repro. 258, as by Bertoldo.
1928
Bode, Wilhelm von. Florentine Sculptors of the Renaissance. Translated by Jessie Haynes. Rev. 2nd ed. London, 1928: 185, as by Bertoldo.
1931
Ricci, Seymour de. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Renaissance Bronzes. Oxford, 1931: 4, no. 2, pl. 2, as by Bertoldo.
1935
Brinton, Selwyn. Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena: painter, sculptor, engineer, civil and military architect (1439-1502). 2 vols. London, 1935: 2:46-47.
1943
Weller, Allen Stuart. Francesco di Giorgio 1439-1501. Chicago, 1943: 162-163, 253, fig. 60, as late 1480s.
1949
Brandi, Cesare. Quattrocentisti senesi. Milan, 1949: 234.
1949
Rotondi, Pasquale, ed. Studi artistici urbinati. 2 vols. [Urbino], 1949: 1:23, 71, as preceding Deposition and NGA tondi.
1949
Seymour, Charles. Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1949: 17-18, 178, note 30, repro. 106.
1951
Renaissance Bronzes: Statuettes, Reliefs and Plaquettes, Medals and Coins from the Kress Collection. Introduction by Perry B. Cott. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 142, repro. 61.
1958
Landais, Herbert. Les Bronzes Italiens de la Renaissance. Paris, 1958: 38, 113, pl. 7.
1961
Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings and Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 89, color repro.
1965
Pope-Hennessy, John W. Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars. London, 1965: 26-27, no. 74, fig. 15.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 156.
1966
Montagu, Jennifer. "Plaquettes Revealed." Apollo 83 (March 1966): 229.
1968
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:142.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 138, repro.
1970
Del Bravo, Carlo. Scultura senese del Quattrocento. Florence, 1970: 100-101.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 628, fig. 967.
1980
Carli, Enzo. Gli scultori senesi. Milan, 1980: 45.
1980
Friedmann, Herbert. A Bestiary for Saint Jerome. Washington, D.C., 1980: 164-172, figs. 120, 122-124, 128.
1983
Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 36–37, no. 4, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 629, no. 974, repro.
1987
Toledano, Ralph. Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Pittore e scultore. Milan, 1987: 134-135, no. 53, two repros., as c. 1485-1490.
1994
Penny, Nicholas. "Non-Finito in Italian Fifteenth-Century Bronze Sculpture." Antologia di belle arti new series, nos. 48-51 (1994): 13-14, fig. 4.
1994
Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 91, repro.
2003
Gregori, Mina, ed. In the Light of Apollo: Italian Renaissance and Greece. 2 vols. Exh. cat. National Gallery and Alexandros Souzos Museum, Athens, 2003-2004: 1:219.

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