This detailed and stylized figure of St. Jerome in his study at prayer was originally the right half of a diptych whose other panel depicts a vision of the Holy Trinity, and is today in the Musée Magnin Dijon (fig. 1). The complex theological iconography and level of minute detail suggest the erudition and high status of the painting’s original patron. The Master of the Lille Adoration painted about seven versions of this subject, and the Diamond picture is undoubtedly one of the finest examples.

In a dark room, Jerome gazes up to his right where the edge of a cloud is visible, spreading into his space from the heavenly vision in the adjacent panel. He holds a bone in his right hand, and his left hand is held up as if in surprise; he has set aside his spectacles and liturgical texts. Through his open shirt his body appears muscular, but his age is apparent in the veins on his hands, his gray hair and beard, and wrinkled brow. Jerome is aware of his own mortality, as evidenced by the crucifix and skull upon which he has been meditating on the table behind him. The landscape visible through the window beyond includes a medieval monastery complex and livestock crossing a river, including a pair of camels that suggest Jerome’s time in the desert living as an ascetic.

The combination of objects in Jerome’s study reflect the Christian themes on which he meditates, and, as argued by Maryan Ainsworth, reveal Jerome’s interpretation of the Holy Trinity.¹ The banderole facing Jerome reads “Memorate novissi[ma tua] et in et[e]r[nu]m non pecc[abis]. Libri Sap[ientiae],” (Keep in mind your last day and you will not sin eternally. From the Book of Wisdom) which is taken from the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes 7:40. The book faces the viewer, mirroring how a devotee should approach the image, with devotional text in hand. The left page presents the first lines of the Gospel of John: “In principio erat verbum et verbu[m] erat apud deum,” (In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God). Jerome translated both the Old and New Testaments and wrote a commentary on the Gospel of John, but these specific passages also connect to the beginning and end of life as a meditative topic, and are connected to the objects in the room. The bone fragment in Jerome’s hand signifies the beginning of mankind with Adam, while the skull and crucifix symbolize the end of human life on earth.

The particular combination of texts also relates to the vision of the Trinity in the adjacent panel. The Gospel of John discusses the relationship between God the Father and Son and the image of the Trinity more than the other Gospels. On the right page of the devotional missal facing the viewer is the beginning of the Te Deum, a prayer sung on Sundays and feast days and composed during Jerome’s lifetime. It includes verses dedicated to both the Father and Son and mentions the Trinity, Christ’s role as redeemer and as judge at the end of days, and ends with a plea for mercy and protection from sin. Jerome can be seen as pleading for mercy in the Diamond picture, and the religious viewer would be encouraged to do the same while gazing at the Trinity along with Jerome. At the time this painting was commissioned, there were ecclesiastical debates about whether Jerome was indeed an authority on the Trinity or whether he had visions of the Trinity in his lifetime, but there remained a strong popular belief, fueled by hagiography, that he did have such a vision.²

Though the Master of the Lille Adoration has a distinctive individual style, he remains anonymous, but was likely a contemporary of Joos van Cleve in Antwerp in the early sixteenth century. He was possibly a student of Dirk Vellert, to whom this painting was previously attributed. Ellen Konowitz in 1995 re-attributed all of the paintings formerly given to Vellert, including the present lot, to the Master of the Lille Adoration, whose name-piece is an Adoration of the Shepherds now in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille. The master’s several paintings of St. Jerome in his study are based on a type developed by Joos van Cleve which exists now only in studio copies and versions and in which a half-length, bare-chested Jerome is shown as scholar, witness to the Last Judgment, and penitent all at once. (fig. 2.)³ Yet the anonymous master employs more dramatic poses and unnatural foreshortening than his contemporaries, and Konowitz notes that tense, awkward hand gestures, on full display here, are a hallmark of his work.⁴ The artist’s energetic drawing style can be seen with infrared reflectography (fig. 3); Jerome’s facial hair and wrinkles are particularly detailed, while areas of slight shadow on his chest and garment are indicated with quick hatching. The master also used the underdrawing to work out the three-dimensionality of Jerome’s uncomfortably twisted left hand.

1. See Ainsworth 2007.

2. Ainsworth 2007.

3. See J.O. Hand, Joos van Cleve, The Complete Paintings, New Haven/London 2004, p. 163, no. 79.8 (as a copy, possibly workshop of Joos).

4. See Konowitz 1995, pp. 186-7.