Saint Jerome in the Wilderness

Neri di Bicci was a prolific Florentine painter of the mid-fifteenth century, the son of Bicci di Lorenzo, who ran a large workshop producing altarpieces and devotional panels for a broad Florentine clientele. He is unusual among Renaissance painters for having left a detailed account book (the Ricordanze) documenting his workshop's commissions and finances from 1453 to 1475. His Saint Jerome in the Wilderness belongs to his early period, around 1437, before he had taken over the workshop from his father, and reflects his training in the conservative Florentine tradition rather than the new spatial innovations of Donatello and Alberti.

The wilderness setting for Jerome gave Neri di Bicci an opportunity for landscape detail — rocky outcrops, a crucifix, the penitent saint beating his chest with a stone — within the gold-ground convention. His figure style is competent and workmanlike, reflecting the workshop production method that served clients who wanted clear devotional images rather than artistic novelty.