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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 141: 

TECHNICAL NOTES: The painting support is a hardwood board
(poplar). On the verso, two crossbars have been inserted horizontally
into the original board. There are some old cracks in the panel.
The gesso ground is white and covers the whole support. The paint
layer is abraded, with extensive retouching, in particular on the
figures. The background with architecture is well preserved. The
varnish is very thick and yellowed. Documented restoration: Consolidation
of flaking colour. Filling and retouching. Varnish.

PROVENANCE: Gift of Axel Beskow, 1926.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sirén 1928, pp. 31–32; Sirén 1933, p. 30; Suida
1936, p. 534; Benezit 1957, p. 725; Mazzini 1957, p. 577; NM Cat.
1957, p. 39; Precerutti Garberi and Mucchi 1972, p. 36; Perissa Torrini
1980, pp. 78, 95; Bora 1982, p. 175; Giusti Leone and De Castris
1985, pp. 144, 169; Sricchia Santoro 1986, p. 227; Marani 1987, p. 130;
Marani 1988, p. 101; Giusti Leone and De Castris 1988, pp. 113, 127,
272; Carminati 1989, pp. 360, 365; NM Cat. 1990, p. 333; Morandotti
1991, p. 178; Perissa Torrini 1992, pp. 402, 412; Carminati 1994, pp.
180–182; Carminati 1998, pp. 305–324.

St Jerome is kneeling before a crucifix that is lying
on a cloth and two books, probably referring to
the Bible he translated from Greek and Hebrew
into Latin and carried with him in the desert.
He holds a stone with which to beat himself on
the chest. The vegetation is rich, profuse and
quite Leonardesque, far from the barren desert
landscape St Jerome is often portrayed in, as for
example in the version by Jacopo del Sellaio in the
Nationalmuseum (NM 2366, cat. no. 140).

The panel was given to the Museum in 1926
by Axel Beskow and subsequently attributed to
Cesare da Sesto by Osvald Sirén in 1928. In 1933
Sirén changed the attribution to Cesare da Sesto
in collaboration with Cesare Bernazzano, in
view of the Northern landscape with its Gothic
architecture in the background. This was widely
accepted and is still maintained in the 1990 Nationalmuseum
catalogue o  f European paintings.¹
Annalisa Perissa Torrini has identified a preparatory
drawing for the St Jerome at Windsor Castle
[Fig. 1] and Marco Carminati has proposed a
drawing at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice
to be a preparatory drawing for the left arm of
the saint.²

Cesare da Sesto painted three different versions
of St Jerome. Apart from the Nationalmuseum
panel, there is one in the Pinacoteca di
Brera in Milan and another in the Southampton
Art Gallery. There are several copies of all three,
and at least five different 16th-century copies
of the Nationalmuseum panel,³ all painted on
canvas, which also suggests that the present panel
is the original. The original provenance of this
St Jerome is not known, but its Leonardesque appearance
points to it originating in Milan in the
early 1500s. It has earlier been linked to a short
visit to Milan in 1513–14, but is now considered to
have been painted in 1516 or 1517.⁴ In his monographic
study on Cesare, Carminati discusses the
dating of the Nationalmuseum panel at length
and maintains a date after the artist’s return to
Milan late in 1515.⁵
je

1 For example, Suida 1936, p. 534; NM Cat. 1990.
2 Perissa Torrini 1980, pp. 78, 95; Carminati 1989, p. 365.
3 Carminati 1994, p. 182.
4 Perissa Torrini 1980, pp. 78, 95.
5 Carminati 1994, p. 181. [End]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2011

Den helige Hieronymus