Saint Jerome Reading
Dublin Core
Title
Saint Jerome Reading
Description
In Saint Jerome Reading, Giovanni Bellini explores a religious figure with Saint Jerome, but more specifically there is an exploration of the natural world as can be seen by most of the painting. It was made in 1505, and today it is located in the National Gallery of Art in the United States.
Saint Jerome is seen on the bottom right of the painting reading in the desert, which specifically represents his religious devotion to the Bible. There are also other animals that can be seen around him such as a lion below where he is sitting, a squirrel and two rabbits above him on the rocks, with a darker one on the right and a white one on the left. There is also a dark bird seen hanging on one of the trees. Towards the back of the image, Bellini looks to emphasize the sophisticated nature of the atmosphere around Saint Jerome, with what looks like Roman architecture with stones and arches in the back. There is also a body of water present behind with a city in a far away island, which gives a sense of depth to the painting and gives the audience a sense that Saint Jerome is deep inside of this location. The difference in the foreground and background of the image, along with a contrast of lights and darks is what makes this painting by Bellini so different. It explores only a single subject, but at the same time this can stand for multiple things such a solitude and the importance of the environment, but also a shift in the way art was now being displayed.
Bellini progressed over time to this new style of Venetian art. He had a series of paintings portraying Saint Jerome and emphasized greatly on the physical nature around him. In general, the purpose of this naturalism was to combine idealism with a very realistic and detailed portrayal of a religious man [1]. The scene is able to portray this because of the way that Jerome is seen as solitary man but also symbolized as a man who was a hermit and humanist scholar that was also religious and devoted to Christianity [2]. Around Jerome, there are also many different religious symbols. For example, the fig tree, bare tree and crumbled rocks are all theological symbols, which serve to represent good and evil, and religion as a whole [3].
[1] Phillip Hendy, "Giovanni Bellini", Encyclopædia Britannica (2020).
[2] Hans Belting, "St. Jerome in Venice: Giovanni Bellini and the Dream of Solitary Life." (Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 17)
[3] Mariolina Olivari, Giovanni Bellini, in AA.VV., Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Firenze 2007.
Saint Jerome is seen on the bottom right of the painting reading in the desert, which specifically represents his religious devotion to the Bible. There are also other animals that can be seen around him such as a lion below where he is sitting, a squirrel and two rabbits above him on the rocks, with a darker one on the right and a white one on the left. There is also a dark bird seen hanging on one of the trees. Towards the back of the image, Bellini looks to emphasize the sophisticated nature of the atmosphere around Saint Jerome, with what looks like Roman architecture with stones and arches in the back. There is also a body of water present behind with a city in a far away island, which gives a sense of depth to the painting and gives the audience a sense that Saint Jerome is deep inside of this location. The difference in the foreground and background of the image, along with a contrast of lights and darks is what makes this painting by Bellini so different. It explores only a single subject, but at the same time this can stand for multiple things such a solitude and the importance of the environment, but also a shift in the way art was now being displayed.
Bellini progressed over time to this new style of Venetian art. He had a series of paintings portraying Saint Jerome and emphasized greatly on the physical nature around him. In general, the purpose of this naturalism was to combine idealism with a very realistic and detailed portrayal of a religious man [1]. The scene is able to portray this because of the way that Jerome is seen as solitary man but also symbolized as a man who was a hermit and humanist scholar that was also religious and devoted to Christianity [2]. Around Jerome, there are also many different religious symbols. For example, the fig tree, bare tree and crumbled rocks are all theological symbols, which serve to represent good and evil, and religion as a whole [3].
[1] Phillip Hendy, "Giovanni Bellini", Encyclopædia Britannica (2020).
[2] Hans Belting, "St. Jerome in Venice: Giovanni Bellini and the Dream of Solitary Life." (Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 17)
[3] Mariolina Olivari, Giovanni Bellini, in AA.VV., Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Firenze 2007.
Creator
Giovanni Bellini
Source
Belting, Hans. "St. Jerome in Venice: Giovanni Bellini and the Dream of Solitary Life." I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 17, no. 1 (2014): 5-33. Accessed September 21, 2020. doi:10.1086/676482.
Hendy, Phillip. (2020, January 29). Giovanni Bellini. Retrieved September 21, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Bellini-Italian-painter
Mariolina Olivari, Giovanni Bellini, in AA.VV., Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Firenze 2007. Saint Jerome Reading. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2020, from https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.358.html
Image Source: Giovanni Bellini, Venetian. 1505. Saint Jerome Reading. Place: The National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Gift of The Samuel H. Kress Foundation. https://library.artstor.org/asset/ANGA_KRESSIG_10312335544.
Hendy, Phillip. (2020, January 29). Giovanni Bellini. Retrieved September 21, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Bellini-Italian-painter
Mariolina Olivari, Giovanni Bellini, in AA.VV., Pittori del Rinascimento, Scala, Firenze 2007. Saint Jerome Reading. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2020, from https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.358.html
Image Source: Giovanni Bellini, Venetian. 1505. Saint Jerome Reading. Place: The National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Gift of The Samuel H. Kress Foundation. https://library.artstor.org/asset/ANGA_KRESSIG_10312335544.
Publisher
Giovanni Bellini, Venetian. 1505. Saint Jerome Reading. Place: The National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Gift of The Samuel H. Kress Foundation. https://library.artstor.org/asset/ANGA_KRESSIG_10312335544.
Date
1505
Contributor
Rafael Salazar-Paranhos
Rights
National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection. Image Source: Artstor
Format
Oil on panel, 47 X 37.5cm
Type
Painting
Coverage
National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C, United States)
Citation
Giovanni Bellini, “Saint Jerome Reading,” ARTHIST 89S - Visual Culture of Venice - Fall 2020, accessed October 22, 2026, https://venice.dahvc.org/fall-2020/items/show/52.