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Res. Katalogtext: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 62: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 279 (M. 1796–97); 211 (F. 1798); 165 (M. 1804);
KM 516.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of a single piece of
thin, densely woven, plain-weave linen fabric. It has been lined
with glue, probably in Italy before shipping to Sweden. Later, the
Italian lining canvas was removed and the painting was glue-lined
again. It was remounted on the Martelli strainer and the Italian
canvas was loosely mounted on the verso. The tacking edges were
kept. The ground is red and covers the whole support. The paint
layer is generally cracked. There are many old retouches and the
borders are overpainted. The varnish is thick and yellowed. The
surface has received a coating of wax. Documented restorations:
1861: Restored by Wahlbergson; 1959: Relined, cleaned, filling, retouching
and varnish.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 2 (as Guercino); Sander 1872–
76, III, p. 107, no. 165 (as Guercino); NM Cat. 1990 (Although not
pictured, the painting is listed in the index as “Anonymous Italian
artist, 18th century”).

In Fredenheim’s catalogue, this painting was
attributed to “Jean Francois Barbieri da Canto,
dit le Guerchin” and described as a “St Jerome”.¹
On Corvi and Tofanelli’s original paper label it
is attributed to “G. Barbieri. Campagna con St
Geronimo”.

Works by Guercino and Mola have on several
occasions been reattributed between the two
artists, and the present painting should quite
confidently be attributed to the circle of Mola,
rather than to Guercino. It should probably be
linked to a series of paintings from Mola’s late
period in which he portrays either St Jerome or
St Bruno in pronounced landscape settings.² It
is comparable, for example, to the St Jerome in
the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh,
mainly because of the similarly conceived idiosyncratic
pose of the saint, with his back turned
to the viewer.³ The small figure in the foreground
against the backdrop of a receding landscape also
exhibits similarities with the St Jerome, often
referred to as The Anchorite, in the Pinacoteca
Vaticana.⁴ In addition, the painting of St Jerome
in the Gelderse Kastelenstichting, Cannenburg,
shows the saint leaning over the Bible, intently
engaged in his work, as in the present painting.⁵
In short, the hunched and crouched appearance
of the figure in the Nationalmuseum painting
is quite reminiscent of Mola’s rendition of St
Jerome in general during this period, on both
larger and smaller scales.

In these paintings, Mola seems to have been
elaborating different ways of expressing St
Jerome’s study and penitence through the position
of his body in relation to the crucifix and
the Bible. This is perhaps even more evident in
the great variety of preparatory drawings related
to the finished paintings, for example in the
drawings of the subject found in the Princeton
University Art Museum and the Teyler Museum,
Haarlem.⁶ Particularly close to the position of
St Jerome in the Nationalmuseum painting is a
sketchily executed figure in the left-hand corner
of the Haarlem sheet, sitting on the ground with
his knees drawn up to support the book, while
hunched, with a strongly arched back, in intent
concentration.

Considering the relatively small scale of the
Nationalmuseum painting, the figure of St Jerome
is rendered with quite elaborate finish and
detail. The painting has almost exactly the same
measurements as NM 211 (cat. no. 61), attributed
to Mola by A. Sutherland Harris.⁷ Although
these two paintings are very differently themed,
there are several similarities between their respective
landscapes. Despite the fact that greater
recesses of landscape are found in the present
painting, the way the artist renders the landscape
through blocks, or layers, of its natural features
is quite similar in the two works. The framing
device of the crossed boughs is used in both
paintings, which in that respect mirror each other
almost completely. The light touch of the brushstrokes
delineating the trees’ boughs and leafs
is also alike in the two paintings. The woman
and the soldier occupy a comparable place in the
composition of NM 211 to that of St Jerome in the
present painting: in front of the heavily gnarled
boughs, which match those before which the saint
has placed the crucifix, the book and his attire.

Although the present painting could well be
related to the group of drawings and paintings
of St Jerome executed in the last years of Mola’s
life, one should be cautious as to its attribution.
The reason for this is chiefly the Martelli
provenance of the painting, bearing in mind the
Giovanni Battista Pace (active in Rome 1664/65)
originals (NM 60 and NM 61, cat. nos. 64–65),
which were attributed to Mola in Fredenheim’s
catalogue, and also the complex case of NM 7163
(cat. no. 14).⁸ Account should also be taken of
Wart Arslan’s early view of the St Jerome paintings
from Mola’s late period as being the work of
his students and followers.⁹ Although Arslan’s
views were disputed by Agnes Czobor, Richard
Cooke has later shown that there are quite a few
instances of his students and followers finishing
paintings based on preparatory drawings which
the master left behind.¹⁰ In all likelihood, the
present painting should be placed in this context.
Dp

1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet
de Martelli (à Rome).
2 Czobor 1968, pp. 544, 565–571, 573.
3 Ibid., fig. 46.
4 Ibid., fig. 42.
5 Ibid., fig. 38.
6 Ibid., figs. 40–41.
7 NM Archives, Documentationsarkivet, “Pier Francesco
Mola”.
8 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet
de Martelli (à Rome). For further discussion concerning
these works in relation to Mola’s oeuvre, see their respective
entries in the present catalogue. For Giovanni Battista
Pace, see Schleier 1992, pp. 13–18; Brink 2002, p. 117, cat. no.
49.
9 Arslan 1928–29, pp. 55–80.
10 Czabor 1968, pp. 544, 565–571, 573. In this article, Czabor
postulates that the characteristic sketchiness of these
paintings is an example of the old master experimenting
with different kinds of compositional solution and
elaborating the style of his execution; Cooke 1972, pp.
25–31, 67–78. [End]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2012

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