The Inspiration of Saint Jerome

Johann Liss was a German painter who trained in Flanders and France before settling in Venice, where he developed one of the most original and coloristically daring styles in early 17th-century European painting. The Inspiration of Saint Jerome — depicting the scholarly saint receiving divine illumination for his Bible translation — was a popular subject allowing painters to explore spiritual rapture in a learned context. Liss's treatment brings his characteristic spontaneity and warm Venetian colorism to the devotional subject.

Jerome is shown in his study, an angel descending with a trumpet or scroll of divine inspiration. Liss's characteristically fluid, almost sketchy brushwork and warm, saturated colors create an atmosphere of spiritual energy unusual in treatments of the scholarly saint. The paint surface has the loose, dynamic quality of his best work.