From the Galleries: Stephen on Saint Jerome
April 22nd, 2009Yesterday afternoon, Gallery Assistant Stephen Ducker talked about his favorite painting and one of the masterpieces in Ideal (Dis-) Placements, Jusepe de Ribera’s Saint Jerome. He spoke about Saint Jerome’s backstory, mentioning the notorious ascetic’s early life as a “thug,” his later devotion to translating the Bible, and the rock, featured in the painting, which Jerome used to beat himself if his thoughts strayed towards the naughty sort. Steve said, in his opinion, Saint Jerome is the “most perfectly placed” painting in the exhibition, noting the direction of the saint’s eyes–away from the bawdy laundress, in Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s The Laundress, and towards the more pious paintings in the Cube Gallery.
Steve Ducker on Saint Jerome
