Saint Jerome in His Study

1514

Albrecht Dürer

Artist, German, 1471 - 1528

Albrecht Dürer

Attributed to

Printed with fine but densely spaced black lines, a man hunches over a table writing in the far corner of a room in this vertical engraving. A lion and a dog lie on the floor closer to us, both with their eyes closed. Arched window openings along the left wall are filled with bullseye glass, and that wall is lined with a bench. A chest and a pair of slippers are tucked under the bench, closer to us. On the bench are three books and two pillows. In the window well closer to us is another book and a skull. The man sits at a square table with trestle legs in the far corner next to the second bay of windows. A small crucifix is at the front left corner of the table. The man, who is balding with long hair, wears a cassock and heavy robes. His feet and knees are pressed together, and his hands are close to each other on the angled writing surface. A glow around his head creates a halo. The only other object on the table is his ink pot. On the far wall are an hourglass, a flat topped, wide-brimmed hat, a rosary, and hand broom. Pieces of paper and a pair of scissors tucked into bands pinned to the wall, and a shelf above holds candles and vessels. The ceiling is made of wood beams, and a pear-shaped gourd hangs at the top right corner. A wide chair holding a cushion sits near the table, and the artist’s initials, AD, and the date, 1514, are on a tablet that lies on the floor nearby.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of R. Horace Gallatin

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to plate mark): 25.4 x 19 cm (10 x 7 1/2 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1949.1.11

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Meder, no. 59


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 1929 by R. Horace Gallatin [1871 - 1948], New York; gift to NGA, 1949.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1984

  • Graphic Survey Show, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., February 1984.

1997

  • Six Centuries/Six Artists, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1997.

Bibliography

1932

  • Meder, Joseph. Dürer-Katalog; ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen. Vienna: Verlag Gilhofer und Ranschburg, 1932. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.

2001

  • Schoch, Rainer, Mattihas Mende, and Anna Scherbaum. Albrecht Dürer: Das druckgraphische Werk. Munich, 2001: vol. 1: no. 70.

2013

  • Parshall, Peter. "Graphic Knowledge: Albrecht Dürer and the Imagination." Art Bulletin 95, no. 3 (September 2013): 404, 405, 406, fig. 8.

Inscriptions

in plate, lower right, on tablet on floor: 1514 / AD [artist's monogram]; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: NR [?] 31612

Watermarks

none

Wikidata ID

Q1198912


You may be interested in

Loading Results