Saint Jerome in a Landscape
Master of the Legend of St Lucy (fl.1475-1505)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1470 - 1499
Materials
Oil on panel (oak)
Measurements
563 x 400 mm (22 1/8 x 15 3/4 in)
Place of origin
Bruges
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446748
Caption
Saint Jerome is shown in an act of devotion, with his Cardinal’s cloak and hat placed beside him. The landscape is filled with incidents from the life of the saint: on the right the merchants with their camels and the ass stolen from the monastery are chased by the lion, and on the left the ass is returned to the monastery. The picture from which the artist takes his name is the ‘Legend of St. Lucy’, dated 1480, in the church of St Jacques, Bruges. This picture can be dated relatively accurately, to around 1490, because the city of Bruges is depicted in the background, and the belfry there, is in its finished state. It was heightened between 1480 and 1490, and was damaged by fire in 1493. It was not rebuilt until 1499-1501.
Summary
Oil painting on oak panel, Saint Jerome in a Landscape, Master of the St Lucy Legend, active late 15th century. The saint, wearing a soutane, kneels in the foreground looking up at the crucifix, right, his cardinal's cloak and hat placed beside him, the lion nearby. A river winds among wooded slopes to a lake surrounding a walled town, representing Bruges, in the distance. In the landscape are seen incidents from the life of the saint; on the right the merchants with their camels and the ass stolen from the monastery are chased by the lion, and on the left the ass is returned to the monastery.
Provenance
Carlo Ludovico di Borone, Duke of Lucca (on the back of the panel is his crown and cypher, C. L. , surmounted by the number A73). Not included in the Lucca sales held in London in 1840 and 1841 but at some period entered the collection of the Earls of Strathmore; at Gibside, or at Streatlam Castle, Durham, and in all probability sold when the castle was demolished and Gibside was abandoned in the early 1920s; acquired by Lord Bearsted from Spink & son (as by Dirck Bouts) in December 1927 for £ 2,000
Credit line
Upton House, The Bearsted Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Master of the Legend of St Lucy (fl.1475-1505), artist previously catalogued as by Dieric Bouts the Elder (Haarlem c.1415 – Louvain 1475), artist
Exhibition history
New Light on Old Masters, Squash Court Gallery, 2013
