Penitent Saint Jerome
Jacopo da Sellaio·1500
Historical Context
Jacopo da Sellaio painted this Penitent Saint Jerome around 1500, toward the end of his career in Florence. A follower of Filippo Lippi, Sellaio specialized in devotional panels and cassone paintings. The wilderness setting with Jerome before his crucifix was a standard devotional formula widely reproduced in Florentine workshops. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.
Technical Analysis
Tempera and oil on panel with detailed rocky landscape and careful rendering of the saint's emaciated body. The warm earth tones and precise botanical details reflect the Florentine tradition of naturalistic landscape painting.
