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."

In the Footsteps of Piero della Francesca: The Paris Sequel -- The Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta

Energized by an In his Footsteps tour of Piero della Francesca's working range, I have been on a months-long quest to identify and view his paintings that have migrated beyond those borders. I had identified the Louvre as the home of his Malatesta portrait (Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, 1451) but the area wherein the piece was housed was closed on the occasions that I visited. I was finally able to see the painting when I visited the institution with my daughter in August of this year.

Piero della Francesca, Portrait of Sigismondo
Pandolfo Malatesta, 1451

The subject of the painting was a powerful and ambitious mercenary captain with an "immense capacity for cruelty." He was born in 1417 and inherited the lordship of Rimini from his father. "... from the outset his life was one of warfare, political intrigue and ceaseless ambition." He fought for and against many Italian states as well as the Papacy, eventually becoming the biter enemy of Pope Pius II.

Malatesta surrounded himself with scholars, poets and artists and this "intellectual curiosity" and "enlightened patronage" transformed Rimini into a "vibrant center of Renaissance culture" (wonderfulmuseums.com). As a part of his image and legacy building initiatives, Malatesta was remaking the modest family Franciscan church -- Tempo Malatestino -- into a "classical temple and personal mausoleum" (wonderfulmuseums.com). Towards that end he invited Piero della Francesca to come to Rimini and paint a fresco in the church of him kneeling in front of his namesake saint.While conducting that effort, Piero was asked to paint the standalone portrait.

Alessandro Angelini (Piero della Francesca, SCALA, 2023) stipulates that the portrait was modeled on a medal made by Pisanelli for Sigismondo. "What was just an emblem on a coin becomes a fully rounded, almost sculptured portrait, with a proud expression of unrelenting cruelty. The three-dimensional effect is achieved also by a most realistic skin tonality, created with the technique of oil paint."

Marilyn Aronberg Lavin (Piero della Francesca, 1972) sees the profile as "fiercely silhouetted against an almost too solid dark background" where the "dark red hair is made to fit like a tight cap around the skull. His tucked, cut-velvet jacket stands as stiff as a pedestal, supporting the column of his neck ... A counter-light coming from behind illuminates the back edge of his neck with a warm glow ..."

And wonderfulmuseums.com describes the piece variously as "a cornerstone of Renaissance painting," "an awe-inspiring masterpiece," and as "instantly recognizable for its stark profile and the enigmatic aura of its subject."

Piero della Francesco

Italian

1412/16 - 1492

Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta

1451

Oil on wood (poplar)

44.9 x 34 cm

Musée du Louvre

Room 709, Denon

Inventory #: RF 19781

Acquired: 1978

Ownership: Etat

Held by: Musée du Louvre, departement des Peintures

Pala Feriale: the first “cover” for Basilica San Marco’s Pala d’Oro

In 1342 Doge Andrea Dandolo ordered the enhancements to the Pala d’Oro which resulted in its current configuration. In 1345 he commissioned Paolo Veneziano to create a “cover” for the altarpiece so that it would be protected on days when not on display (special occasions and high-feast days).

Paolo Veneziano, the pre-eminent Venetian painter in the 14th century, is widely regarded as the founder of the Venetian school of painting; the bridge between the Byzantine and Gothic traditions and the “nascent humanism of the early Renaissance.”

Paolo came from a family of painters: his father was a painter, as was his sons. His date of birth is unknown but, given that both his sons Giovanni and Luca signed the dated product discussed herein, scholars have used that as a basis to approximate his age. No consensus has emerged.

As discussed in my post on the Pala d’Oro, a pulley system was utilized to fold the top segment into the lower when the altarpiece was not in use. Veneziano would have to address that fact in his delivered solution.

Paolo met the requirements by creating two segments of wooden panels, each measuring 57 x 325 cm, and painting images of the dead Christ flanked by St. George, St Mark, the Virgin, St. John, St Peter, and St Nicholas on the top portion and scenes from the life of St Mark on the bottom portion.

Paolo Veneziano (with sons Giovanni and Luca), 
Pala Feriale, 1345

There is a marked contrast in the mood conveyed in the two segments, as is to be expected with the dead Christ centering the upper portion. The lower portion includes scenes such as the conveyance of St Mark’s body to Venice and the miraculous discovery of his missing body on the day of the consecration of the basilica.

“For most of its history the Pala d’Oro was hidden. It stood behind the altar and was covered for ordinary use by a painted wooden panel … That practice preserved it. Exposure to candle smoke, incense and handling is what destroys enamel and gilding, and the Pala spent most of the last seven hundred years behind a shutter” (byzantine culture.com).

Today Pala Feriale is displayed in the San Marco Museum. It was restored in 1995.

Pala d'Oro at St Mark's Basilica: Art History in Focus Venice Palaces and Private Views

Wednesday was a full day on the Art History in Focus Palaces and Private Views tour of Venice and was capped by a private post-dinner tour of St. Mark's Basilica.

Having relatively unencumbered access to this famed religious site was a treat but viewing it under lights took the experience to another level. I walked, wide-eyed, through the structure as Luisella explained the history, architecture, and religious iconography associated with the building but the foregoing was no preparation for my first sighting of the Palo d'Oro.

I made a right-hand turn into the passageway just before the Altar and was brought to a stop by a large, segmented painting of Jesus and the Disciples.

After snapping a pic, I continued along only to run into a traffic jam as my fellow tour members had stopped to look at something to my left which I could not yet see. I pushed along to get a better view of the object and was stunned by a breathtakingly beautiful, bejeweled golden structure that appeared to reflect every photon of light present in the building. This was, Luisella explained, the Pala d'Oro. 

As described by byzantinelegacy.com, Pala d'Oro is basically an altar screen of gold studded with hundreds of gems. According to this source, Pala derives from the Latin palla (cloth). These cloths, sometimes decorated with images of saints, were used to cover the altar or embellish its background. Over time, these cloths were upgraded to gold or silver coverings.

This stunning Byzantine gold and enamel altarpiece is, according to stmarksbasilica.com, "universally considered to be the most precious and refined expression of Byzantine genius." It is the largest surviving assemblage of Byzantine cloisonné enamel in the world.

"The most expensive Byzantine art was not painting. A gold reliquary set with cloisonné enamel plates represented an investment of precious metal, imported stone and highly specialised labor that no panel or fresco could approach, and it was this work ... that western visitors described with the most open envy" (byzantineculture.com). 

Enameling is the fusing of powdered glass to metal using heat. The cloisonné technique, favored by the Byzantines, involved (byzantineculture.com): (i) outlining the design with thin gold strips that were soldered or placed on edge on a gold base; (ii) filling the cells thus created with powdered glass of different colors; (iii) firing(s); and (iv) grinding and polishing to finish. Full-ground meant that the entire surface of the plate was enameled (a process used up to around the 10th century). In sunk-ground, a recess is cut into a gold plate and only the figure is enameled. This was the method preferred during the middle Byzantine period.

The structure and iconography of the altarpiece is illustrated in the two charts below.

As indicated in the first of the two charts above, the current structure came together over a number of years. The bottom portion of the altarpiece was commissioned by Doge Faliere in 1102 and was delivered from Constantinople in 1105. It was enlarged with the top portion in 1209 using spoils from the Pantocrator Monastery taken during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The altarpiece took its final shape during the course of 1342 -1345 when the Sienese goldsmith Giovanni Paolo Boninsegna was given the task of combining the elements within a gothic frame and distributing precious stones throughout the assemblage.

A total of 1300 stones are spread across the face of the altarpiece. This number was established in a 1796 census and subsequent counts bear it out. The stones are mostly uncut or simply polished in the medieval manner. The stones signified alignment with the jeweled walls of the heavenly Jerusalem.

The two sections of the Pala d'Oro were hinged such that the upper portion could be folded over the lower through pulleys connected to two columns at the rear of the assemblage. The final restoration to the structure dates back to 1836 - 47 when the upper section was firmly joined to the lower. This work was carried out  by the goldsmiths Lorenzo and Pietro Fauro.

The altarpiece had faced the nave until 1958 when a special lifting-and-rotating mechanism was installed. This system allowed the altarpiece to face the nave on the special days and then be turned to the rear where it could be comfortably admired at other times (basilicasanmarco.it).

Vermeer's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

In the Vermeer painting Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, the latter sits at Christ’s feet while Martha stoops to offer him a loaf of bread in a wicker basket.

Johannes Vermeer, Christ in the House
of Martha and Mary, 1654 - 55 

The National Gallery of Scotland (its place of residence) describes this piece as one of the largest that Vermeer had created and the only known one covering a biblical topic. 

This painting shows an artist seeking a path. According to the National Gallery of Scotland (NGS), this picture "belongs to a small group of very early works which show the artist experimenting with various techniques and combining various influences in Dutch and Flemish art. ... The strong play of shadow and light, the characterization of the figures and broad handling of paint were probably inspired by the work of artists from Utrecht, who in turn were in turn inspired by Caravaggio's art" (The chart below shows my characterization of the path from Caravaggio to these "Utrecht Caravaggisti").

But it also provides flashes of the mastery that would become a hallmark of the painters mature offerings: "The lay of light on different surfaces such as the loaf of bread or the different fabrics is closely observed. The handling of the shape and color also has something of a distilled quality that we associate with the artist. Even the statesque figure of Martha, with her downcast eyes, seems like a precursor of the tranquil women who occupy Vermeer's later interiors, caught in suspended animation as they perform the simplest of domestic tasks."

The painting's size and topic suggests that it was created for a specific commission but its ownership is unclear prior to it surfacing in a private English collection as a Raphael. A cleaning in1901 revealed the Vermeer signature and its true authorship.

Graham-Dixon (Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found) sees the figure of Christ in this work as having been “lifted directly from The Death of St Joseph” by the Neapolitan Caravaggio follower Andrea Vaccaro. “The figures are nearly identical in physiognomy and pose, down to the exact position of their hands, the one difference being that Vaccaro’s Christ is standing and Vermeer's’s seated."

Andrea Vaccaro, The Death of St. Joseph, c. 1650 

Christ, according to Graham-Dixon, "addresses the stooping Martha in the manner of a mild and forbearing schoolmaster correcting a pupil who has made an innocent mistake." Further, by showing Martha with "lowered eyes and a solemn expression," the suggestion is that she understands the message that Jesus is conveying.

The NGS only suggests that this painting was made as a private commission but Graham-Dixon goes a little further by asserting that the buyer had to be someone who disagreed emphatically with the Calvinist position that faith alone is sufficient for the attainment of salvation. Martha is the meek and humble bearer of a gift, a loaf of bread, which immediately identifies her with the first of the seven Christian Acts of Mercy, feeding the hungry.

Graham-Dixon sees the painting as "turned more towards a female gaze" and, given its size, it may have been an altarpiece in a private, home-based chapel.

Vermeer's Diana and her Companions: After Andrew Graham-Dixon (Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found)

In Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, Andrew Graham-Dixon divides Vermeer's oeuvre into (i) works created for the van Ruijven family and (ii) everything else. Within the Everything Else class, we encounter the painter's earliest works, those based on Bible stories, myths, or the lives of Saints. The earliest known of these is Diana and her Companions, painted, according to Graham-Dixon sometime around 1653.

Johannes Vermeer, Diana and her Companions, c. 1653

This was the same year that Vermeer registered himself (December 29, 1653) as a Master Painter with the Guild of St Lukes. Registering as a Master implied having spent the prescribed apprenticeship period with a qualified Master but there is no indication as to who played that role in Vermeer's life. In that he was not accorded the initiation-fee discount provided to apprentices who trained under Delft-based Masters, one has to assume that he trained under a "foreign" Master.

But let's get back to Diana and her Companions. The story is told by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses. According to Graham-Dixon, "Diana was one of twelve gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, a slim and athletic huntress who was venerated by the Greeks and Romans as the personification of chastity. ... Her nymphs were required to be as chaste as Diana herself. But one of these Callisto, was seduced and impregnated by Jupiter without Diana's knowledge, her pregnant state only being discovered when she refused to disrobe and bathe in the stream along with the others."

In the painting Diana and her companions are resting in a woodland glade post the hunt. The scene is illuminated by a light emanating from the top left, a Caravaggio-like chiaroscuoro. Graham-Dixon describes the modeling herein as "broad and soft" and the color palette as a "rich mix of red, blue, orange, russet and gold." This palette, according to the author, is more Italian than Dutch and indicates that the young Vermeer was a "sophisticated and well-read painter who had spent a lot of time looking at Italian art."

Vermeer, according to Graham-Dixon, shows the moment just after Diana calls her companions to rest after the exertions of a busy hunt. The scene includes a dog -- representing fidelity -- and a thistle -- "calling to mind the narrow and thorny path of Virtue chosen by Hercules at the crossroads' -- but the central figure is the goddess. 

While the central figure, Diana is not the focus. That role, according to the author, is reserved for the companion who is washing her feet, a ritual nowhere described in Ovid's work. "Washing the feet draws us away from Classical antiquity" and places us into the realm of religious themes such as Jesus washing the feet of the Disciples and Mary Magdalene washing Jesus' feet. Two details that are evocative are the brass basin and white linen cloth, items which appear again and again in Flemish altarpieces of the Crucifixion, Lamentation, and Descent from the Cross.

In this transformation from mythological painting to one with Christian overtones, Diana's leading attendant can be construed as Mary Magdalene. According to Graham-Dixon, the painting appears to be more about the attendant than either Diana or Callisto. "In her person is embodied not only the chastity and rigor prized in antiquity, but also the most tender form of Christian humility."

Graham-Dixon surmises that this painting might have been paying homage to a new bride by emphasizing her qualities of modesty and reserve. He discussed a few potential candidates but eventually ruled them out of consideration.