Cleveland Museum of Art

Saint Jerome and Saint Catherine of Alexandria Standing in a Landscape

Girolamo da Treviso the Younger

Date

c. 1530

Medium

pen and ink, gray wash, and white heightening over black chalk on prepared buff colored paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Girolamo da Treviso the Younger created this drawing as a preparatory design for a painting while working in Bologna at the Church of Santissimo Salvatore. The type of composition is known as a sacre conversazione (sacred conversation). Invented in Venice, this genre featured saints within expansive landscapes sharing a contemplative presence. Saint Jerome’s attribute, a lion, is loosely sketched with brush and ink, while the figures are carefully composed with a mix of ink, ink wash, and white highlights on colored paper, giving them a monumental, sculptural appearance. After working in Bologna from 1523 to 1538, the artist was invited to the court of King Henry VIII of England, where he became a military engineer and was killed during the English siege of Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1544.

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