Arpino was the leading painter in Rome in the final decades of the 16^th century. He belonged to a family of painters: his father, Muzio Cesari, was an artist as was his brother, Bernardino, who later became his principal assistant. From very early in his career, Cesari was patronized by an elite and important clientele. While still in his teens he was promoted by his master Niccolò Circignani from garzone to junior painter on the team which was frescoing part of the Vatican Loggie for Pope Gregory XIII. Although largely employed in ambitious decorative schemes, including a series of decorative friezes at the Palazzo del Quirnale (since destroyed), as well as the still extant frescoes in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome, it is for his more intimate scenes on panel, copper, slate and semi-precious stone, that Arpino is most admired. His position as the favored painter in Rome would remain fairly secure even after the arrival into the Eternal City of the Carracci and Caravaggio, the latter of whom was his pupil for a short time.

This highly refined and luminous Saint Jerome in the desert was executed by Arpino circa 1600, when the artist was at the height of his popularity and overseeing the prestigious decoration of the transept of Saint John Lateran. Executed on panel, it demonstrates all of the hallmark qualities for which d'Arpino was renowned. The foliage, in particular, is beautifully rendered in minute detail and lush green pigments. This element of the composition compares well with the artist's glowing Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the Galleria Borghese (fig. 1). Furthermore, in its employment of a sweeping rocky landscape, and overall muted color range, the present picture also reveals its debt to Flemish landscape painting, and in particular that of Frederick van Valckenborch and Paul Bril, the latter of which was active in Rome for most of his career. This work has in fact previously been attributed to both artists, in each case based on comparison with a similarly composed Saint Jerome on canvas, also in the Galleria Borghese. That comparable work is one of six sopra porte (over-door) landscapes that formed part of Arpino’s personal collection. Herwarth Röttgen, who endorses the attribution of this painting to Cavaliere d'Arpino, now suggests that Arpino's pupil Flaminio Allegrini may in fact be the author of the Borghese canvas.

A copy of Professor Röttgen's certificate is available upon request.