St. Jerome 1545 - 1565

Battista Franco created this engraving of St. Jerome, a key figure in the Catholic Church, during the vibrant, transformative period of the Renaissance. Franco, an artist deeply influenced by the masters of his time, presents Jerome not in the splendor of his religious office, but as a gaunt, contemplative figure in the wilderness. Jerome’s intense study of religious texts, his translation of the Bible into Latin, and his ascetic lifestyle, resonate with the spiritual intensity of the Reformation era, when traditional religious authority was being questioned. Stripped bare, in a craggy landscape with a skull, Jerome confronts mortality and spirituality. The lion, a traditional symbol of Jerome, lies at his feet, a testament to the saint's dominion over both the natural world and his own base instincts. Notice how Franco renders Jerome’s body, not as an idealized form, but as one marked by age and deprivation. The saint’s intellectual might, the physicality of his existence, and the symbolism of his faith, all converge, inviting reflection on the intersection of mind, body, and spirit.