In the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca: Design schema for Legend of the True Cross

After our morning viewing of Santa Maria Maddalena, we took a break for lunch and then went on to the Basilica of San Francesco to view Piero's Legend of the True Cross. This piece resides in the Basilica's Bicci Chapel.

The Franciscan friars settled in the outlying hills of Maccagnolo sometime between 1211 and 1217 and, by 1232, had established themselves outside the city walls on Poggio del Sol. In 1290 they were invited by the municipality to move within the city walls and a house and land were donated to them to encourage the building of a church and convent. Construction on the main structure continued until the 1370s. The Bell Tower was added in the 16th century. The structure took on a Baroque appearance during the 17th century but this was reversed with a mid-19th-century retool.

Basilica di San Francesco, Arezzo

The Bicci chapel was commissioned by the Bacci family, "one of the most influential and respected during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance." Baccio di Masso Bacci, a prominent family member, left a generous bequest in his 1417 will to decorate the choir of the Basilica. This bequest reflected Baccio's desire for "religious reconciliation" and "salvation of the soul." The bequest was funded by his heirs approximately 30 years after his death.

The work was assigned to Bicci di Lorenzo -- a Florentine artist with a style rooted in the late Gothic -- and he completed some peripheral portions of the work prior to his death in 1452. Completion of the effort was then entrusted to Piero della Francesca.

We entered the Basilica and surveyed a number of well-appointed side chapels before making our way to the main chapel and the Piero Cycle. The first thing that attracts the attention is a large wooden cross with a crucified Jesus which hangs from the ceiling and is framed almost perfectly by the chapel window beyond. According to museiarezzo.it, this piece dates back to the eighth-ninth decade of the 13th century and is attributed to "an Umbrian painter identified as 'The Master of Saint Francis.' The cross ... depicts a Patient Christ, that is, a suffering Christ, with Saint Francis kneeling at his feet in adoration."

Head-on view of the Bacci Chapel
with the Patient Christ and the rear
wall of the Piero cycle

The Piero Cycle consists of episodes of the Legend of the True Cross taken from the Legenda Aurea by Jacopo da Varagine, a collection of stories on lives of the Saints and explanations of liturgical feasts. The writings of this Dominican friar was transcribed between 1260 and 1270 and widely distributed during the Middle Ages. The figure below shows a graphical outline of the story while the portions enclosed in boxes are the pieces that Piero has captured in his frescoes.

Piero did not treat these frescoes in the conventional manner; that is, left to right and top to bottom. This disconnect begins with the Genesis stories (the earliest stories) being placed in the right lunette rather than beginning in the left. Further, the story of Adam's death, as told in the first lunette, unfolds from right to left while the story in the the panel directly below reads from left to right. Rather than continuing downwards, the story then jumps to the panel to the left of panel 2.

This seemingly discordant movement suggests that Piero was following some mission greater than simple linear uniformity. And the design schema presented below bears that out. Piero sought to match the tiers on the opposing walls by having similar themes, regardless of temporal issues. He also sought to match the tiers on the opposing sides of the altar wall with like themes.

I will examine the elements of the cycle in an upcoming post.

Equestrian Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni (Venice, Italy): Andrea del Verrocchio (1435 - 1488)

The 16th-century was the Golden Age for Venetian art. Verrocchio's presence in Venice in the latter half of the preceding century -- and the Equestrian statue which resulted from his thinking and labor -- were early markers of this most significant period.

The subject of the lauded Verrocchio equestrian statue was Bartolomeo Colleone, a well-regarded Condottieri (mercenary leader) who had been Captain-General of the Serenissima forces since 1455.

Giovanni Battista Moroni, Portrait of
Bartolomeo Colleone, 1566

Bartolomeo was born in Solza (vicinity of Bergamo) in 1400 and followed in the footsteps of his father. Bartolomeo fought under a number of non-Venetian contracts but always remained loyal to that polity. He was a very wealthy man with assets spread between cash and a number of properties. 

Upon his death in 1475, he bequeathed 100,000 ducats to the Venetian state to aid in their fight with the Turks. In return, he requested that the state build a monument to him in Piazza San Marco. Venetian law did not allow for the placement of personal monuments within that square; but the state needed the funds. Rather than say that Bartolemeo's wish could not be granted -- and lose the funds -- the Senate proceeded with the design and construction and emplaced the finished monument next to the Scuole Grande di San Marco in the Campo San Giovanni e Paolo; not exactly what the Condottieri had had in mind.

The Senate opened a competition for the design of the monument in 1481 and invited Verrocchio, Bartolomeo Bellano (a Donatelli protegé), and Leopardi (a Venetian foundryman) to participate. Verrochio displayed his model in 1483 and the wood and leather model was adjudged to be the superior submission due to its "dynamism and anatomical precision." Verrocchio opened a new workshop in Venice to work on the full commission and remained in the city until his death in 1488.

Before delving further into the monument and its construction, let's get a better understanding of its creator.

According to the National Gallery of Art, Verrocchio was one of the leading artists of late 15th-century Florence; as a sculptor, "the most important figure in the Renaissance between Donatello and Michelangelo." His works were "of unprecedented technical accomplishment and breathtaking naturalness and beauty."

Leonardo da Vinci was apprenticed to Verrocchio and, in his biography of the former, Isaacson provides some insight into the latter's workshop and teaching practices. The shop was on two levels with the ground floor dedicated to production and assistants eating and sleeping together of the top floor. The training regime was intensive with studies around surface anatomy, mechanics, drawing techniques, and the effect of light and shade on material such as draperies

Objects were mass-produced by the students in pursuit of a goal of a constant flow of marketable art and artifacts. Verrocchio himself was trained as a goldsmith so left much of the painterly activities to others. He was a kind master; so much so that many of his students (Leonardo included) continued to live and work with him after their apprenticeships were completed. Notable students included Lorenzo di Credi, Pietro Perugini, Leonardo, Botticelli, and Ghirlandaio.

In the painting arena, NGA views Verrocchio as forming "a direct link in the central chain of Florentine painting between his master Fra Filippo Lippi and his own pupil Leonardo da Vinci." In speaking of Verrocchio's skill as a sculptor, Isaacson saw his "ability to convey the subtleties of motion in a piece of still art" as one of his most under-appreciated talents. "More than most previous artists, Verrocchio imbued his statues with twists, turns, and flows." His paintings were mostly religious while his sculptures covered a wide range of topics.

In speaking of Verrocchio's skill as a sculptor, Isaacson saw his "ability to convey the subtleties of motion in a piece of still art" as one of his most under-apreciated talents. "More than most previous artists, Verrocchio imbued his statues with twists, turns, and flows."

Now back to the construction of the monument.

According to the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, "Verrocchio aimed to create a monument that outshone Donatelli's Gattamelata, the first Renaissance equestrian statue. In his monumental sculpture Verrocchio succeeded in raising the front leg of the horse in the air. This unprecedented success gave the composition additional dynamism and vitality."

Donatello, Equestrian Statue
of Gattamelata, 1453

Shortly after casting his work in clay, Verrocchio fell ill and died in June 1488. His will called for the work to be completed by his assistant Lorenzo di Credi but the Senate was not on board. Instead they recalled Alessandro Leopardi from a 5-year exile (resulting from fraud charges) to finish the job. Leopardi added a number of features:

• Details of the Colleoni arms
• Harnessing for the horse
• The bronze frieze on the entablature
• Placed his name on the horse's girth
• Pedestal.

The completed bronze sculpture stood at 395 cm (about 13 feet). Eric van Schaach (Andrea del Verrocchio, EBSCO) describes it thusly:

It is a work of enormous power, and the violent and aggressive twist of the rider's body gives a sense of tremendous energy waiting to be unleashed. To achieve this effect Verrocchio has twisted the figure to the limits of human possibility. Similarly, the brutal face is an unflinching delineation of a type, not an individual, but is rendered so plausibly that it seems more vital than any portrait.

Andrea del Verrocchio, Equestrian

Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni,

1480 - 96

The pedestal exhibited the following characteristics (ermakvagus.com): 

• Classical-inspired design with decorative columns reminiscent of ancient Roman imperial equestrian monuments
• Ornamentation incorporating the Colleoni family coat of arms
• A high base that raises the horse and rider above eye level
• Inscriptions and architectural moldings that blend Renaissance classicism with Venetian elements
• More than doubles the overall height.

Verrocchio equestrian statue on
the Leopardi pedestal

The statue was presented to the Venetian public on March 21, 1496. Venice now had the foremost equestrian statue in the world.

After centuries of exposure to the mix of salt from the lagoon, humidity, and air pollutants, the monument was in a situation where further inattention would yield corrosion with resultant surface erosion and a weakening of the armature (World Monuments Fund). To address the situation, the Fund began a process of cleaning and restoration of the monument in 2003. It set up a temporary conservation studio on site and conducted the following activities (WMF):

• Treated severely rusted armature
• Replaced unsalvageable structural members
• Secured the statue to its stone base
• Implanted a monitoring device to track future changes to the monument.

This conservation effort was completed in 2006.

Vermeer's Saint Praxedis

On the morning of October 18, 1654, the Delft powder magazine -- a repository of 90,000 pounds of black gunpowder -- of the States-General exploded, destroying 1/3 of the city and killing 100 people, including renowned artist (and friend of Vermeer) Carel Fabritius (of The Goldfinch fame). Vermeer painted Saint Praxedis shortly after this massive explosion and, according to Andrew Graham-Dixon (Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found), the effort might have been in response to it.

Saint Praxedis was a virgin saint living in Rome during the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. She, along with her sister Saint Pudentiana, followed their father Pudens, himself a disciple of St Paul, in the worship of Jesus Christ. The sisters ignored personal risk by caring for the bodies of fellow Christians who were harmed for their beliefs. It is said that Sant Praxedis collected and stored the blood of 23 martyrs. The sponge that she used to collect the blood is held today in the Roman basilica built in her memory.

In Vermeer's painting, the saint dominates with a slightly elongated and saddened face, a flowing dark red robe with white folds at the sleeve, and a grey wrap tossed over it at the right shoulder. The saint is squeezing a brown sponge from which blood trickles into a waiting black and gold ewer. A light illuminates the scene from around 10:00 o'clock, casting parts of her hair, face, chest, and clothing into shadow. The light also illuminates a crucifix which protrudes at a diagonal from the hand-sponge construct (In terms of symbolism, Graham-Dixon sees the inclusion of the crucifix as "reinforcing that the blood of every martyr is mingled with the blood of Christ" and that "all who die for their belief in Christ will be united in Christ and made as one.").

Jonathan Vermeer, Saint Praxedis, 1655

In the background, to the saint's right, we see a decapitated head and the body from which it was separated. Blood is visible within the wound and pooling on the ground below. The blood's bright red color suggests a recent decapitation and one has to assume that the blood flowing into the ewer is associated. Over the saint's left shoulder, a female figure can be seen walking towards a structure.

This painting was long considered to have been authored by the Italian painter Felice Ficherelli; a later version of his original painted in 1640 - 45.

Felice Ficherelli, Saint Praxedis, 1640 - 45

That attribution was thrown into doubt when the painting was shipped to New York in 1969 to appear in a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition of Florentine Baroque paintings. A pre-exhibition examination revealed an inscription in the lower left corner bearing Vermeer's signature and the date 1655. Subsequent examinations revealed an inscription on the lower right side reading Meer/N/R/o/o. This inscription was interpreted to read "copy by Vermeer after (nach) Riposo (Ficherelli's nickname. The painting was exhibited as a Vermeer.

There was some skepticism as to the attribution of the painting to Vermeer based on the inscriptions. The first argument was that the inscriptions could have been added by someone else at a later date. Dixon-Graham refutes this argument on two grounds: (i) the relationship between the inscription and the canvas and (ii) the similarity of paint elements between this painting and other know Vermeer paintings. As regards the first point, Graham-Dixon sees a later addition as implausible because "the paint of the signature appears integral to the initial surface." Tico Seifert (Early Ambitions -- Vermeer, 2023, p.132) agrees with Graham-Dixon on this point. Further, in his estimation, any paint added at a later time would have run into the cracks of the canvas. Such an event has not occurred.

Further strengthening the attribution of this painting to Vermeer is the fact that the particles of lead white pigment used in the Saint Praxedis has the same lead isotope ratio as the lead white pigment used in Diana and her Companions. It would seem that the same batch of paint was used in both compositions (Graham-Dixon). Gregor Weber (Johannes Vermeer: Faith, Light and Reflection,, 2023, pp 70 - 71) diminishes this argument. "Analysis of samples from other Dutch 17th-century paintings  showed identical lead which was used frequently between 1642 and 1680." The same author had some concern with the interpretation of the second inscription. The term advanced as "after Riposo" could more plausibly, he said, be Latin forms of Rhoon or Roden.

Gordon-Dixon says that a comparison of the Ficherelli and Vermeer paintings does show the latter to be a copy of the former but with some telling differences from a painter creating a literal copy. First, the crucifix in the Vermeer painting does not appear in the Ficherelli original. Second, the paint has been built up layer by layer -- as evidenced by the ewer having been "painted over a fully elaborated section of the saint's red robe." If a pure copy, the ewer would have been adjacent to, rather than on top of, the robe.

There are a number of other differences which the author has not pointed out which lead me to think that this copy was made from memory or notes:

• In the Ficherelli painting, the woman walking towards the Martyrium ("a type of early christian shrine erected over the burial place of martyrs") seems to be engaged in conversation with two males. No such male figures are apparent in the Vermeer painting.
• A brighter red for the saint's robe in the Ficherelli painting
• A grey wrap across the right shoulder in the Vermeer painting; a thinner, almost see-through throw in Ficherelli's
• Much more shadow in the Vermeer painting; stronger light source in Ficherelli.

Graham-Dixon sees the Vermeer painting as having much in common with his earlier works. For example, as was the case in Diana and her Companions, Saint Praxedis advances the ideal of humble and virtuous womanhood. Similarly, as Christ in the House of Martha and Mary illustrates that faith and good works are essential to a good Christian life, here is Saint Praxedis performing one of the Seven Acts of Mercy.

Graham-Dixon sees the Vermeer effort as having been commissioned by a woman, or group of women, who had suffered loss in the mega-explosion, to help them pray for the souls of the departed; or, conversely, for those who had passed away in the Thirty- or Eighty-Year Wars. Weber contends, however, that the Jesuits were somehow connected with this piece:

• The story of the sponge is not included in the Legende aurea (standard work on the lives of the saints) but is found in Jesuit collections
• The preservation of the worship of early saints fits with the practices of the Jesuits
• The inclusion of the crucifix is a marked departure from the original painting. "The veneration of the cross and imitation of Christ are especially characteristic of Jesuit piety"
• Interest in Ficherelli's painting and a copy of it fits well theologically in the circle of Jesuit priests
• Jesuits had excellent connections in Italy and traveled frequently between Rome, Flanders, and the mission countries. In that there is no record of Vermeer ever having visited Rome, someone from the Jesuit community could have temporarily transported the painting north for his perusal and study.

There is currently no widely accepted consensus as to the person or persons who commissioned this effort.

The mosaics at Santa Maria Assunta: Art History in Focus' Venice Palaces and Private Views Tour

After our morning visit to San Francesco della Vigna, the group boarded a ship and took a long, languid cruise around the lagoon. As we cruised by the various islands, Luisella provided ongoing commentary as to the history and current conditions. Our eventual destination was the island of Torcello.

Torcello (ancient name Turricellum) was once a center of power in the lagoon. Salt was the mainstay and its harbor became a major trading center for the exchange of goods between Byzantine and Eastern Mediterranean polities. The double whammy of the plague and expanding swamps made the island less hospitable, causing inhabitants to flee to surrounding islands.

We landed at Torcello with two objectives: (i) lunch and (ii) a visit to Chiesa Santa Maria Assunta. The walk from the harbor to the restaurant was fairly lengthy, most of it taking place on a concrete path that ran alongside an arrow-straight canal. Our trek concluded at Osteria al Ponte del Diavolo where we partook of a three-course meal followed by coffee. The restaurant was extremely generous with frequency and volumes of pours of the red and white wines that accompanied the dishes. I am not complaining. Just observing. 

Great stop. Now on to the church.

The Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta is the main structure on the island.

It dates back to the 7th century, built on the behalf of the Erach of Ravenna "following the transfer of the episcopal seat of Altinum to Torcello to escape the Lombard invasion on the mainland." It was expanded in 826 AD and then rebuilt in 1008. It was consecrated to Santa Maria Assunta and retained its position as a Cathedral until it was downgraded to a parish church under the Venice Patriarch. The inscription on the foundation stone indicates that: a) Isacc ordered the construction; b) Maurice was the military commander who built it from its foundation; and, c) Maurus was the bishop who consecrated it.

The basilica is noted as being a "significant example of Venetian Byzantine architecture." It is divided into into three naves by Greek marble columns topped by "beautifully decorated capitals."

The church is home to two stunning mosaics. First, in the bowl of the main apse, the Virgin Mary with Child in the high register and a slate of Apostles in the lower.

Virgin Mary, Baby Jesus, and Apostles

This is an extraordinary mosaic -- on a golden background -- of the Virgin wrapped in precious garments, holding the Baby Jesus in one arm and beckoning him with the other. Such a disposition is called Virgin Hodegetsia. This setting signifies the Virgin showing the way to salvation through Christ. The apostles are identified  by inscriptions.

The figure of the Virgin is attributed to a 11th-century Byzantine workshop while the Apostles are identified as being late-12th-century work done by Venetian mosaicists working from Byzantine models. Bwtween the second half of the 11th century and the second half of the 12th century, the Cathedral received an "extensive mosaic cycle from Byzantine and Venetian mosaicists."

The second mosaic -- the west wall mosaic -- is called The Last Judgment and is described as "the most complex surviving single-topic monumental image in 11th-century eastern or western church decoration." It has also been described as "one of the most monumental mosaics in the Veneto."

Detail of The Last Judgment

The Last Judgment "forms a graphic depiction of the Christian message of redemption and salvation through Christ's mission, and a shocking warning of judgment to come." Below, I have segmented the painting into its various messages.

The painting is the last thing that congregants see as they exit the church.

The mosaic dates to the 11th century but has had extensive repairs due to damage in the 12th century. According to a survey by Andrescu-Treadgold, the top two bands are from the 12th century -- they replicate what was there previously -- while the lower portion dates to the latter half of the 11th century.

The San Francesco della Vigna monastic complex: Art History in Focus' Venice Palaces and Private Views Tour

The third day of the tour began with an early morning walk through Cannaregio that took us past Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Basilica Santi Giovanni e Paolo and concluded at San Francesco della Vigna in Castillo. The San Francesco della Vigna monastic complex includes a church, a monastery, and a vineyard. 

On the 25^th of June, 1253, Marco Ziani, son of Doge Pietro, bequeathed a vineyard, houses, and a little church to the Franciscan friars.  The church that existed at the time had supposedly been built on the spot where, according to tradition, St. Mark had been driven ashore by a storm while on a return trip from Acquileia. The saint encountered an angel who told him that (i) the lagoon would be his final resting place and (ii) a city would grow therein and would call Mark its protector. 

The Church

The Franciscans built a medieval church in the vineyard shortly after gaining access to the land. This church was a triple-nave Gothic design built by Marino de Pisa. A monastery housed the monks. Both the church and the Friary were dedicated to St. Mark until the name of St. Francis usurped that role in the mid-1300s.

A new grand Friary with three large cloisters was built in the 15^th century. 

The medieval church was demolished in the first half of the 1500s and replaced with the current design.

The reconstruction was ordered by Doge Andrea Gritti who laid the foundation stone in August of 1534. The design utilized was that of the Florentine architect Jacopo Sansovino. The church was built on a Latin-cross plan with a wide central nave flanked by six chapels on either side. An additional four chapels were built in the Presbytery. 

The Franciscan friar, Fra Francisco Zorzi advised on the design of the church. He based the sizing of various elements on divisibility by three – in deference to the Holy Trinity. So, for example, the nave was nine paces wide and 27 paces long. 

The side chapels were sold to wealthy donors for 200 – 300 ducats per. The right to be buried in the floor below the high altar was granted to Doge Gritti for a contribution of 1,000 ducats. These contributions went towards construction and gave the donor the rights to (i) place coats-of-arms in the chapel and (ii) to bury their relatives there. 

The work on the church was substantially completed by the end of 1534 and yielded the first Renaissance church interior in Venice. The façade was not completed at this time. The church was consecrated in 1582. The pictures of the interior shown below were taken during our tour of the church on September 30, 2026.

Interior of San Francesco della Vigna

When Doge Gritti died, sponsorship of the church construction shifted to Giovanni Grimani, the Patriarch of Acquileia. A façade for the church presented a number of design/implementation issues, hence a lengthy period of façade-free use.  Grimani funded an Istrian stone façade by Andrea Palladio for the church. Palladio’s design cleverly addressed the issues and the work was done between 1564 and 1568. 

Exterior of San Francesco della Vigna

The consensus is that the church and monastery rank among the finest examples of Venetian Renaissance architecture. 

The Monastery

As was the case for similar Venetian institutions, the Friary was suppressed by Napolean in 1810, initially serving as a navy barracks then as an artillery barracks. During this period, many old ruins were demolished and the northern columns of the largest cloister bricked up. 

The Friary was bought back in 1881 and restored between 1953 and 1956 (isevenizia.it): 

• External loggia demolished

• Brick columns “freed” on two sides of the large cloisters

• Salt-eaten walls renovated

• Beams cleaned

• Minor superstructures demolished

• New wing added to the far west side to serve as an information hall and a provincial curia.

The monastery is now used for temporary exhibitions, concerts, and some Biennale exhibition events. One of its cloisters is the long-term resting place for noble Venetians while the other houses the library. 

The Library

The library may date as far back as 1260 but appears in the written record for the first time in 1437 when Pope Eugene IV named it in one of his edicts. It serves many roles today (masterisevenezia.it).

 First, it preserves, and makes available, valuable ancient books. Its current holdings have been rebuilt (since 1871) by acquisitions and donations from religious and lay people/institutions. 

The library of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies was established in 1987 to meet its academic needs. That library is housed in the monastery. 

The library collects, preserves, and catalogs the Venetian collection of the Province of St. Anthony of the Friars Minor. 

Since 2001 it has been incorporating ancient collections from closed convents of the Venetian province of St. Anthony OFM and from private individuals.

Vineyard and Wine

The name given to the church and monastery harkens back to their origin story. The original bequest to the Franciscans in 1263 was a vineyard plus buildings resident thereon. The monks have continued to tend surviving vines over the years to the present. The monastery is home to the oldest urban vineyard in Venice. 

For most of the 20^th century, the vineyard hosted the red grape varieties Teroldego del Trentino and Refosco del Friuli. The monastery has established a wine partnership with the Marzotto family (of Santa Margherita fame) to aid in the management of the vineyard and wine production.  In 2019 the Santa Margherita agronomists removed the red varieties and replaced them with Malvasia and Glera (the prosecco grape). 

The existing vineyard has a surface area of 1600 square meters and it has been divided between the Malvasia (400 sq meters) and Glera (1200 sq meters) varieties. The soil in the Glera zone is sandy, quick-drying and influenced by the salty water. The vines are trained simple Guyot with a pole for each vine and with plants set 1 meter apart. 

The Malvasia grapes are grown in a more sheltered area. They are trained espalier Guyot with 80 cm between the vines, Soils here are less subject to brackish water: they take a longer time to absorb water but also need more time to dry out. 

The vineyard is farmed organically, and operations are conducted by hand. 

The Santa Margharita enologists produce a wine named Harmonia Mundi from these grapes. 

The initial vintage was 2022 wherein 1,107 numbered bottles were produced. The wine is a sparkling type made using the Charmat method and spending 6 months on its lees. 

St Jerome Writing: One of the multitude of Caravaggios at Rome's Galleria Borghese

On one of my prior trips to Rome, Lidia, Brandon, and I had planned to visit Galleria Borghese to view the Caravaggios on offer there. Visits to the Capitoline Museum and Galleria Dora Pamphilj sucked up most of the day, however, and rendered that plan inoperable. I was not going to make the same mistake twice so when Karen and I went back into Rome, I only engaged in one activity before beelining toward Galleria Borghese. The walk from the bus stop to the museum, and getting into the museum without pre-bought tickets, proved a little more complicated that I had expected but we made it in. I was flabbergasted. Beautiful space and a veritable feast of famous works by famous artists. 

I almost forgot that I was on a mission. And then I got to the area where the Caravaggios were displayed. Six masterpieces: David with the Head of Goliath; Madonna and Child with St Anne; Saint Jerome Writing; Saint John the Baptist; Boy with a Basket of Fruit; and Self-Portrait as Bacchus. I will examine the St Jerome further in this post.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Saint Jerome
Writing, c. 1606 (Galleria Borghese, Rome; viewed
in situ August 30, 2026)

Saint Jerome Writing was prepared by Caravaggio in fulfillment of a commission for Cardinal Scipione Borghese. According to The Met, Borghese (1576 - 1633) "was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Rome during the first third of the seventeenth century. An astute art collector, he commissioned sculptures that would come to define the Baroque movement."

The work shows an aged St Jerome on the right-hand-side of the painting peering intently onto a page of a thick tome. He has a hint of a halo above his head and his left shoulder, back, and lower body are covered by a voluminous red garment. His outstretched arm appears to be resting on the opened page from which he is reading. The thumb and forefinger lightly embrace a quill which appears silvery in the cast light. That light also illuminates his right arm, face, and chest as well as part of the book. There appears to be a malformation of the forearm. Saint Jerome is depicted as a scholar herein; according to tradition, he had translated the Holy Scripture from Greek to Latin. In the days prior to the Reformation, he would be shown with a Lion and a cardinal's hat. The Reformers sought to return religious art to its foundations hence the presentation of the saint in his raison d' etré (Galleria Borghese).

At the other end of the solid brown wooden table is another open book which, given the proximity of the quill, one can conjecture, is the recipient of the written word. Positioned on that book is a skull which, when paired with the grey-white cloth draping down from the table, has the look of a person surveying the Saint's work.

In typical mature Carravagio style, the background is darkened, the areas of focus sharply lit, and there is a profusion of shadow. There is not much separation between the painted scene and the viewer.

The painting provides us with a series of contrasts: life (albeit aged) in the person of the saint versus the promise of death embodied in the skull; warm colors on the Saint's side versus a dull grayness on the other; and, finally, a temporal contrast with the skull representing the past and the saint representing the present.

There has been some discussion as to the completeness of this painting. Antonio Ionnelli, writing in the Galleria Borghese Catalog Entry: "The limited quantity of paint used in the work, the summary representation of some details -- such as the irregularity of the beard and the rapid execution of the cassock -- as well as several elements that seem to indicate that the painter had second thoughts -- evident in the left hand, right arm, the face and the pose of the saint -- inclined Maurizio Marini to propose that the painting was unfinished. In 1989, however, Mia Cinotti rejected this idea."

This work had been attributed to Caravaggio at least since 1633 and was recorded as hanging in the premises in the middle of the 17th century. Despite the foregoing, it was mistakenly attributed to Jusepe de Ribera in 1790 and only regained its rightful authorship when it was included in a 1951 Roberto Longhi exhibition of Caravaggio works.

In the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca: The Venice Sequel -- Saint Jerome and a Donor

Experts are uncertain as to when* Saint Jerome and a Donor was painted but, according to Alessandro Angelini (Piero della Francesca, SCALA, 2023), it is "probably to be included amongst the 'many paintings of small figures' mentioned by Vasari as being commissioned by several rulers during the artist's journeys in the Marches and Emilia Romagna."

The painting is currently resident in the Gallerie dell'Accademia and I happened upon it, with no foreknowledge, while traversing its halls. It shows St Jerome dressed in a tunic which is cinched at the waist with a thorny branch. He is sitting on a stone bench and pauses in the midst of his reading as a supplicant kneels before him.

Piero della Francesca, St Jerome and a Donor

Piero's signature appears on the truncated tree trunk that serves as the base of the crucifix. The inscription in the foreground identifies the supplicant as Gerolama Amadi, a member of a wealthy merchant family from Lucca. Gerolama has commissioned the work.

"The donor and his protecting saint appear to be conversing as equals, for it was obviously Piero's intention to exalt the human dignity of his patron ... The bright hues of color are similar to the clear sunlit atmosphere of the London Baptism of Christ, and even the background, with its rolling hills and steep country paths, confirms a vision of landscape that was first anticipated in the London painting ... with bare hills, partially covered with vegetation ... burnt out by a Mediterranean sun, the city walls are made of white lime and the water of the river is transparent" (Angelini). 

As is the case in many of Piero's paintings, there is a distinct verticality in the effort.

The painting was previously owned by Count Bernardino Renier and was a legacy from his wife Felicita Bertrand Helmann to the Gallerie in 1850 in keeping with her husband's will.

Piero della Francesca

Italian

1412/16 - 1492

Saint Jerome and a Donor

49 x 42 cm

Gallerie dell'Accademia

Catalog #: 47 

Legacy of Felicita Renier, 1850

*According to the institution, "the chronological location of the painting in Piero's production has been the subject of lively discussion, even if we tend to accept its dating at the beginning of the seventh decade of the fifteenth century, just after the Resurrection of Christ of the Municipal Art Gallery of Sansepolcro, datable approximately to 1458 - 59, with which it shows some affinities in the relationship between the figures and the hilly background."