Saint Jerome in the Wilderness

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness by Ribera, at the Detroit Institute of Arts, depicts the church father as a gaunt, sun-weathered hermit. Ribera painted Jerome repeatedly throughout his career, finding in the elderly scholar-ascetic an ideal subject for his unflinching naturalism. Ribera painted his saints with unflinching naturalism rooted in his early study of Caravaggio's Rome before settling in Naples in 1616. Working under Spanish viceregal patronage, he produced devotional images combinin...

Jerome's emaciated body is painted with Ribera's characteristic attention to the physical effects of age and austerity — sagging muscles, prominent veins, and sun-darkened skin. The desert setting is suggested through warm, sandy tones that complement the saint's weathered flesh.