Saint Jerome

Lorenzo Veneziano's Saint Jerome, now in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, is a work by the foremost Venetian painter of the mid-fourteenth century. Lorenzo was instrumental in transforming Venetian painting from its Byzantinizing tradition toward the more naturalistic Gothic style prevalent in the rest of Italy. His depictions of saints exhibit a new warmth and individuality that distinguish them from the hieratic icons of earlier Venetian workshop production, reflecting contact with both Bolognese and Paduan artistic currents.

Executed in tempera on gold-ground panel, the painting reveals Lorenzo Veneziano's distinctive synthesis of lingering Byzantine gold-ground conventions with the softer modeling and more naturalistic drapery folds of mainland Gothic painting. His refined brushwork and attention to physiognomic detail mark a turning point in the Venetian school.