Rembrandt and Saint Jerome

Rembrandt portrayed the individual figure of St. Jerome more frequently than any other saint. His choice of St. Jerome was unusual for an artist working in a Protestant society, for by the seventeenth century Jerome was championed primarily by the Catholic church because of his defenses of orthodox Catholic dogma and the institutions of the papacy and monasticism. In this dissertation Rembrandt's seven etchings, two drawings, and one lost painting of St. Jerome are discussed, in order to provide answers to several dominant questions: why did Rembrandt choose to depict St. Jerome and why did he largely limit his engagement with this subject to the graphic arts? One answer addresses both questions simultaneously. Rembrandt's fascination with the art of the past, particularly with the rich tradition of northern graphic art, led him to a subject which had featured prominently in this art in the later fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. By turning to the theme of St. Jerome Rembrandt conducted a dialogue with his predecessors in the graphic arts. Simultaneously, the diverse representational history of Jerome images provided Rembrandt with several variants on a theme which fascinated him from his earliest years: the single figure, absorbed in an internal psychological state through prayer or meditation or the acts of reading or writing. The introduction places this study within the context of investigations of Rembrandt's approach to iconography, and suggests that in this case Rembrandt's iconographic treatment of his subject was consciously specific. Chapter one treats Rembrandt's depictions of St. Jerome in repentant prayer and demonstrates how the artist modified the iconography of the penitent Jerome in a way that would make his images more acceptable to Protestants. Chapter two is devoted to Rembrandt's sole rendering of St. Jerome and his study; in it Rembrandt's balance between traditional and innovative elements is emphasized. In chapter three Rembrandt's treatment of the theme of St. Jerome as a scholar in the wilderness is analyzed and seen as the culmination of his dual interests in the solitary St. Jerome and the art of the past.