Title

Saint Jerome Translating the Gospels

painter

Francés, Nicolás [attributed to] (León. Active 1434-1468)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This work was attributed to Nicolás Francés by Chandler Rathfon Post, who recognised in the expression of the figures and the taste for the anecdotal the hand of the master. The original location of the piece is not known with certainty, but it would be logical to assume that it originated from the Castilian-Leonese area, given the places where Nicolás Francés carried out his work. The piece later became part of the Lambert Collection in Oudenaarde (No. 71), and from there it entered the personal collection of the banker Otto Hermann Kahn in 1930. Kahn's sudden death in 1934 compelled his wife to liquidate part of his collection. Thus, in 1939, Robert Langton Douglas, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, acquired the panel through the Mogmar Foundation (New York) for the museum at a total of £4,200 (Gaya Nuño, 1958; Mulcahy, 1988).

Description

Saint Jerome, known for his role in translating the Bible into Latin, is depicted seated in his study, working alongside four monks and a lion. The saint points to one book while writing in another, and the monks around him are searching through books, possibly for the meaning of a word. Therefore, the work in the National Gallery of Ireland portrays the moment when Saint Jerome is translating the Holy Scriptures. Nicolas Francés includes an anecdotal detail by showing one of the monks removing a thorn from the lion's paw, a symbol of the saint that alludes to the legend in which Saint Jerome helped the animal, who, in gratitude, became his loyal companion.

Locations

• ca. 1450 - ca. 1900

  region

  Possible origin from Castile and Leon, Castilla y León (Spain)

• ca. 1900 - ca. 1930

  private collection

  Lambert Collection, Ourdenaarde (Belgium) *

• 1930 - 1939

  private collection

  Otto Hermann Kahn Collection, New York (United States) *

• 1939 - present

  museum

  National Gallery of Ireland, Dublín (Ireland)