Leonardo da Vinci, "Saint Jerome". The story of one painting

The painting "Saint Jerome" is one of the most expressive works of the great master of the Renaissance. Today, it is kept in the Vatican's Pinakotheque and, despite its incompleteness, attracts more and more attention of fans of the work of Leonardo da Vinci.

Saint Jerome in the Desert

Hieronymus is equally revered in both Orthodox and Catholic traditions as one of the teachers of the church. The plot of the picture represents one of the two iconographic images of St. Jerome. Usually in the artistic tradition he was portrayed either as a cardinal in a red robe, with attributes of learning and high rank, or as a repentant sinner dressed in simple clothes, amidst a desert striking himself with a stone in the chest.

Leonardo da Vinci turned to the second image, depicting a penitent elder half-naked, in old clothes, in the middle of a desert landscape. In the hand the saint holds a stone, he is ready to strike himself. At his feet lies a lion, the raised head of the beast and the jaws open in the roar are turned towards the old man.

It is no accident that the artist placed the king of beasts at the feet of the saint. According to legend, the monk Jerome pulled a splinter from the paw of the lame lion. Since then, the grateful beast has become his faithful companion and assistant and is often depicted on canvases near the saint.

The Florentine period of Leonardo da Vinci. "Saint Jerome": creating a painting

A great work on the religious plot was commissioned by Da Vinci by the church leadership of his native Florence in 1480. The young artist then still worked in the workshop of his teacher Andrea Verocchio, a famous master of the early Renaissance.

However, large-scale work on the board more than a meter in height was not destined to become a completed painting. In 1482, due to political intrigues, he left for Milan Leonardo da Vinci. "St. Jerome" remains in Florence, and the master never returns to work on it.

Current state of the painting

Today, the work in the pictorial plan has been preserved as Leonardo da Vinci left it. St. Jerome against the background of rocks, a lion at the feet, a landscape in the background is drawn on a light underpainting. The rocks and the desert surrounding them are dark. The expressive figure of the saint is carefully worked out and prepared for the picturesque layer, while the other details are only outlined by common contours. Even in this version, the work is struck by the expression and tragedy of the created image.

Fortunately, "St. Jerome" Leonardo was not subjected to later attempts by artists to finish the masterpiece. Nevertheless, to this day the picture has reached a bad state. Once sawn in two, it existed as a lid for the casket, and then the counter tops for almost three centuries. And only in the 19th century it was again restored and took its place among other masterpieces in the Vatican's collection.