📝About this Artwork
A star on the chest
Two saints are named here and both are identified by objects rather than by features. Jerome brings the desk and the desert at once — a book, a pen, a skull, a red mantle, a lion. Nicholas of Tolentino brings a narrower set: a black Augustinian habit, a lily, a book, and a star, which the tradition places on his breast. A star worn on the body is an unusually abstract attribute; it names nothing that happened to him in the way a wheel or an arrow does, and it works anyway, because it is unique to him.
What the record holds
The entry is dated 1524 and gives the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, MA, US as its location. The dimensions are 89 x 74 cm, an upright at cabinet scale rather than altar scale. It is filed under female portraiture, Religion, cultural heritage in both headings, and Fantasy, with High Renaissance as the style and Italian as the nationality; the measured colour family is yellow.
Size and audience
Altarpieces need attributes that carry across a room. A picture of these dimensions is met at arm's length, where a star stitched to a habit is perfectly readable. The convention scales down more comfortably than it scales up, which is one reason the same pairings recur at every size in this catalogue — 20 of its titles carry Jerome's name.
About the Author
Louie Drehmer, Curator, Saints Oil Paintings
Louie curates Saints Oil Paintings, cross-referencing every entry against museum records, Wikidata, the Getty Union List of Artist Names, and Wikipedia.
Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Nicholas of Tolentino
Lorenzo LottoVirgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Nicholas of Tolentino is an oil painting by Lorenzo Lotto, 1524, held at Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, MA, US.
Catalogue Entry
- Date
- 1524
- Location
- Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, MA, US
- Dimensions
- 89 x 74 cm
- Style
- High Renaissance
- Period
- 17th Century
- Origin
- Italian
- Subjects
- FemaleCultural HeritageMythology
📂Categories
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👨🎨More by Lorenzo Lotto
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Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome, Peter, Clare and Francis
Enthroned Madonna with Angels and Saints, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Augustine on the left, St. Sebastian and St. Anthony the Abbot on the right
Enthroned Madonna with Angels and Saints, St. Joseph and St. Bernard on the left, St. John the Baptist and St. Anthony the Abbot on the right
Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Catherine of Siena
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Four Saints
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