
by Caravaggio, 1606
Caravaggio painted this Saint Jerome Writing around 1606 for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, one of several works he created for this powerful patron. The elderly saint sits at a rough table, dipping his pen to translate the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate). A skull rests beside him as reminder of mortality.
The composition's stark simplicity focuses attention on Jerome's face and hands. Light falls dramatically from the upper left, typical of Caravaggio's tenebrism. Jerome wears only a red cloak, his body emaciated by desert asceticism. Caravaggio painted this while fleeing Rome after killing a man in a brawl. The painting reached Cardinal Borghese nonetheless. It hangs in the Borghese Gallery.
Other masterpieces from the Baroque movement

El Greco, 1614
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Frans Hals, 1624
Wallace Collection, London

Johannes Vermeer, 1670
Louvre, Paris, Paris

Johannes Vermeer, 1663
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Johannes Vermeer, 1666
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Johannes Vermeer, 1665
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Johannes Vermeer, 1664
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Diego Velázquez, 1650
National Gallery, London
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
Browse Collection