Saint Jerome

This 1473 Saint Jerome in his Study at the Palazzo Abatellis depicts the scholar-saint in his cell surrounded by the books and instruments of scholarship — a subject that combined portraiture, still life, and sacred narrative in the tradition popularized by Jan van Eyck and Petrus Christus. Jerome translating the Bible into the Latin Vulgate in his study was the definitive image of the scholar-saint, and his elaborate study with its accumulated books, instruments, and domestic clutter challenged Renaissance painters to demonstrate their mastery of complex interiors. Antonello's version shows his full command of oil technique in the rendering of varied textures — book bindings, stone walls, wood, and the quality of light filtering through an opening.

The study interior is rendered with meticulous attention to the textures of books, wooden furniture, and stone architecture, Antonello's oil technique creating luminous effects of light penetrating the enclosed scholarly space.