Dosso Dossi

Possibly Lucrezia d'Este (1535-1596), Ferrara.

Possibly P. Della Pergola, "L'Inventario del 1592 di Lucrezia d'Este", in Arte Antica e Moderna, 7, July/September 1959, pp. 343 and 348, no. 8.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This interesting picture has been quite recently restored. The lining seems to have some age, but may have been treated more recently. The stretcher is not old. The paint layer in the head, the skull, the arms and hands and in the crucifix is in lovely condition. The red robe is also very well preserved and although there are retouches in the darkest colors beneath the beard, the remainder is in lovely state. In the background, however, a good deal of thinness and abrasion has developed and these areas have been retouched. The halo around the saint's head is weak and may have been augmented during recent conservation. The paint layer in the face is subdued. It may be slightly dirty, but generally the conservation has been very good and a fresh coat of varnish will probably suffice.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This newly-rediscovered Saint Jerome was painted by Dosso Dossi around 1520. It is a very rare addition to the catalogue of a painter who played a vital role in the artistic flourishing of the cosmopolitan court of Ferrara, where under the patronage of Alfonso d'Este (1476-1534) he worked alongside many of the great cultural icons of his day, including the poet Ariosto. Indeed, his masterpiece Melissa (in the past known as Circe) in the Galleria Borghese in Rome depicts a scene from Book 8 of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and illustrates the enchantress' magic misdemeanors.¹  Painted early in his career, Dosso chose a more naturalistic approach to depict the saint but counterbalances Jerome's apparent introspection and the sobriety of the scene with the rich red folds of the cloak.

Dosso visited the subject on at least three other occasions at different moments in his career. The first, formerly in the Silj collection in Rome, is from circa 1515 and shows the hermit standing in a clearing in a thick forest, gazing into the distance, with his faithful lion resting beside him.² A second treatment, from around the same time as the present work, is his celebrated signed painting in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna which shows the saint in a landscape, before him an open bible and in his raised left arm a crucifix, his expression similarly meditative  (see fig. 1).³ The third essai of circa 1528 is in a private collection in Turin and shows the saint in a reversed but similar pose to the Vienna painting.⁴ In all three canvases the saint is placed in a landscape, a feature which was playing an increasingly prominent role in Dosso's compositions. In the present work, however, the landscape has deliberately been omitted, allowing us to concentrate on the saint alone and share the intensity of his meditation.

The physical representation of the saint betrays many of the features characteristic of Dosso in these years. The strong musculature of the saint's forearm  recurs in other works such as the figure of another Saint Jerome from the altarpiece of the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Ferrara, whose dating has caused some disagreement but which is almost a mirror-image of the present design (see fig. 2).⁵ The concentration of the face and its carefully observed furrowed brow is typical of Dosso's attention to detail in what is otherwise a broadly-painted work. The beard and teeth just visible through the open mouth recall the Saint George now in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.⁶ The intensity of the saint's concentration is complemented by the objects he holds: the traditional object of his meditation, the crucifix, is accompanied by a rosary. The iconography is unusual, however: while a skull or hour glass are often present in depictions of Jerome, reminding us of the transience of the flesh, it is unusual for him to actually hold the skull as he does here.

Though the provenance of the painting is not known, the crucifix provides a useful key in identifying a possible early mention of the work. The evidence is not conclusive but there are enough elements to make a strong case: Lucrezia d'Este, not to be confused with her mother-in-law Lucrezia Borgia, is known to have inherited the collection of Alfonso d'Este, Dosso's patron, through her husband Ercole II (1508-1559), Alfonso's son. In an inventory of her collection dated 1592 (see Literature) several Saint Jeromes attributed to Dosso are listed, many of which have since been identified in other collections, but only one which is specifically listed as holding a crucifix is still untraced: "...San Girolamo con un Crocifisso in mano di mano del Dosso" (a Saint Jerome holding a crucifix by Dosso). The painting is not, however, mentioned in later inventories compiled after the collection had passed to the Aldobrandini family.

We are grateful to Professors Ballarin and Humfrey for independently endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs. Ballarin dates the work to the first part of the 1520s while Humfrey proposes a slightly earlier dating of 1516-19.



1. See A. Ballarin, Dosso Dossi, La pittura a Ferrara negli anni del ducato di Alfonso I, Padua 1995, vol. I, pp. 312-13, cat. no. 372, reproduced in color fig. CXVIII. 
2. Idem, vol. I, p. 304, cat. no. 351, reproduced vol. II, fig. 339.
3. Idem, vol. I, p. 309, reproduced in color fig. CXVII.
4. Idem, vol. I, p. 348, reproduced in color fig. CXCIII.
5. Idem, vol. I, pp. 336-37, reproduced vol. II, fig. 635 and detail fig. 639. The altarpiece is a collaborative work between Dosso and Benvenuto Tisi, called Garofalo, though the figure of Jerome is unanimously given to Dosso. While Ballarin dates the work to 1523-24, Humfrey lists it as documented from 1513-14 (see P. Humfrey, Dosso Dossi, Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, New York 1998, exh. cat., pp. 98-103). 
6. See Ballarin, op. cit., vol. I, p. 333, reproduced in color CLXIX.