BGuthrie Photos: NY -- NYC -- Metropolitan Museum of Art -- Exhibit: Leonardo da Vinci's Saint Jerome

NY -- NYC -- Metropolitan Museum of Art -- Exhibit: Leonardo da Vinci's Saint Jerome:

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Description of Pictures: Leonardo da Vinci's Saint Jerome
July 15–October 6, 2019
To commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), The Met presents the artist’s painting Saint Jerome Praying in the Wilderness (begun around 1483), a special loan from the Vatican Museums. The exquisitely rendered work represents Jerome (A.D. 347–420), a major saint and theologian of the Christian Church. The scene is based on the story of his later life, which he spent as a hermit in the desert, according to the thirteenth-century Golden Legend. The unfinished painting provides viewers with an extraordinary glimpse into Leonardo's creative process, and a close examination of the paint surface reveals the presence of his fingerprints. The display of this monumental masterpiece pays homage to one of the most renowned geniuses of all time.

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[1] METJER_190827_06.JPG	[2] METJER_190827_14.JPG	[3] METJER_190827_19.JPG	[4] METJER_190827_24.JPG
[5] METJER_190827_30.JPG	[6] METJER_190827_38.JPG	[7] METJER_190827_43.JPG	[8] METJER_190827_49.JPG
[9] METJER_190827_60.JPG	[10] METJER_190827_62.JPG	[11] METJER_190827_78.JPG	[12] METJER_190827_80.JPG
[13] METJER_190827_83.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. METJER_190827_06.JPG: Leonardo Da Vinci's St. Jerome The artist, theorist, scientist, inventor, and teacher Leonardo Da Vinci, famed as a genius of the Renaissance, died in France on May 2, 1519. I honor of the five hundredth anniversary of his death, this exhibition presents his unfinished painting Saint Jerome Praying in the Wilderness, a special loan from the Vatican Museums. Leonardo began the monumental exquisitely rendered painting at midcareer. He had recently arrived in Milan from his native Florence, where he had earned a reputation for working slowly and had disappointed several patrons by failing to complete projects. In Milan he would create some of his most well known paintings, including the Last Super. After working on Saint Jerome for an extended period of time, the artist left the picture in an unfinished state that offers extraordinary insights into his creative process. Scholars over the centuries have hotly debated the attribution of certain paintings by Leonardo, and much hype has accompanied anything connected with his name. This is one of about six paintings whose authorship has never been questioned. Here, the picture hangs isolated and starkly illuminated within an otherwise darkened space in order to heighten its contemplative mood. The solemn, chapel like settings recalls the way great Italian artists were sometimes commemorated at death: with a display of allusion to their art or a religious work of their creation.
2. METJER_190827_14.JPG: Leonardo's Subject & Theories of Expression Medieval and Renaissance artists depicted Saint Jerome (A.D. 345/47-420), a Christian theologian and celebrated translator of the Bible, in a variety of settings and with numerous attributes. Leonardo chose to portray the saint in an intimate scene of reverie, highlighting private mysticism rather than public achievements. Though the patron and circumstances of its production are unknown, the painting likely served as an aid in prayer and meditation. Though the patron and circumstances of its production are unknown, the painting likely served as an aid in prayer and meditation. The scene is based on Jerome's later years as a hermit in the desert, as described in the thirteenth century Golden Legend. The penitent saint aged, gaunt, and nearly toothless kneels in the act of praying and beating his breast amid a rocky landscape. He directs his gaze at a crucifix, barely outlined in profile at right in a nearby cave. Reclining before the saint is a tame lion, his companion. The figure's pose recalls some of Leonardo's earlier designs (see illustration). For Leonardo, a painter's most ambitious goal was to portray a composition (or istoria) with convincing emotion. The saint's face and gestures convey Leonardo's revolutionary theories on human physiognomy and expression. The artist wrote that the outward gestures of the face and body communicate the "motions of the mind" and the "passions of the soul." In the late 1480s and 1490s, his experimental anatomical research led him to believe that the seat of the soul lay on the center of the skull cavity (see illustration).
3. METJER_190827_19.JPG: Designs for altarpieces of the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, ca 1482-85. Silverpoint, partly reworked by the artist in pen and dark brown ink, on pink prepared paper, lines ruled in silverpoint.
4. METJER_190827_24.JPG: Three-quarter view of the human skull partly in section, with notes, ca. 1489.
5. METJER_190827_49.JPG: The Painting's Technique & History The unfinished painting shows us that Leonardo did not proceed in a systematic way; some portions are highly developed while others are not. Infrared reflectography, a noninvasive technique that penetrates the layers of pigment, reveals that he was particularly interested in creating a detailed, anatomically correct under drawing for the saint's body. He added color principally in the upper left portion of the composition, using his fingers to distribute the pigments and create a soft focus effect; Leonardo's finger prints are visible in the paint surface there. Scholars have proposed various reasons, for the painting's unfinished state. It is possible that the perfectionist Leonardo became dissatisfied with it (even as he continued to work on it); or perhaps his patron abandoned hope that it would be completed and canceled the project. The panel has prominent cuts and rejoining soft the wood around the head of the saint. It appears to have been finely sawn into pieces at an unknown date, probably in order to extract the most commercially valuable portion. Although unrecorded by Leonardo's biographers, the work was acquired sometime between 1787 and 1803 by the Swiss painter Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), then living in Rome. After her death, legend has it that Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763-1839), Napoleon's uncle, found the separated parts in an antiques shop and at his shoemakers. The painting entered the Vatican collections on September 5, 1856.
6. METJER_190827_60.JPG: Image of the painting in infrared reflectography.
7. METJER_190827_62.JPG: Detail showing the artist's fingerprints in the upper left area.
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