Title

Saint Jerome at His Study

Generic classification

Object

Date

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Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

This sculpture, Saint Jerome in his Study, had to be displayed together with a similar one, also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: Saint Ambrose in his Study. Both come from the collection of the banker and collector John Pierpont Morgan. In the first descriptions of that collection, when it arrived at the Metropolitan Museum, the reference to its provenance was as follows: ‘…two French wood-carvings from the second half of the fifteenth century, representing two of the Latin Church Fathers, Saint Jerome with his lion and either Saint Ambrose or Saint Augustine (fig. 82) The Fathers are seated at their reading desks…’ (The Pierpont Morgan Wing, p. 146). The pieces were acquired by Morgan from the Paris-based antique dealer Georges Hoentschel.

However, we have two sculptures similar in style and composition in the Marès Museum in Barcelona, a museum that was born from the donation of the collection formed by the sculptor and collector Frederic Marès (1893-1991); These are: St Augustine (75 x 71 x 28 cm. Inv. No.: MFM 1139) and St Gregory (81 x 66 x 25 cm. Inv. No.: MFM 1141); like the sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Fathers of the Church are shown at their desks and with a model of the Church. However, they differ from the New York pieces in the finial on the chair on which they are seated. Furthermore, the Marès Museum pieces are slightly higher, without base; the finishes of the garments also show variations, as well as the base or the presence of cushions in the Barcelona sculptures, which are not found in the New York pieces. Frederic Marés, referring to the pieces in his collection, alluded to their provenance from ‘Támara’. Thus, the catalogue published in 1979 stated: ‘Representation of two ecclesiastical figures in their library study. A Pope with his tiara and a Bishop seated on footstools that stand out against an openwork architectural background. Curious interpretations that show technical mastery in the use of the gouge; the work of a workshop in Burgos. They lack polychromy. They come from Támara. 15th century. They measure: 80 x 66 and 76 x 73 cm. (Museo Marès, 1979).

Different, but with similarities, could they have come from the Palencia town of Támara de Campos? Its main church, San Hipólito, with royal patronage, enjoyed a period of splendour at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries; important masters from the Burgos artistic centre worked there. Two important pieces of furniture from this period were lost, for different reasons: the old choir stalls and the old main altarpiece. From that period, as far as wood carving is concerned, the temple still conserves the door to the choir, from 1492, the year in which the conquest of Granada took place, hence the pomegranate appears in the ornamentation of the door, accompanying the coat of arms of the Catholic Monarchs (Chico López, p. 106-107).

The truth is that a large part of the construction of the temple corresponded to the period between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century; however, in 1568 the tower collapsed. If we look at the preserved documentation, it seems that the collapse affected six chapels in the Gospel nave and the area where the old choir stalls were located. For this reason it was necessary to commission new seating, which is recorded in the accounts books from 1580. With regard to the old main altarpiece, in 1689 the parish records report that a new one had been commissioned by the Bishop of Palencia, Fray Alonso de Laurencio de Pedraza: ‘many residents of this town have pleaded with His Illustrious He may order a new altarpiece to be made for the main altar with Solomonic columns, with a tabernacle of the same columns, where the patron saint, St. Hypolitus the Martyr... And in accordance with his most illustrious command, he ordered that the church warden go to the city of Villada and meet with Santiago Carnicero and discuss how the paintings on the main altar and the one there today could be arranged...’ (Visit of the year 1689, folios 342-343. Chico López, p. 207). Indeed, the new altarpiece, in accordance with the taste of the late 17th century, came to replace the old one. That altar had to have paintings - if we are to believe the documentary reference - and perhaps sculptures, as four high reliefs (100 x 100 cm) with scenes from the life of Saint Hippolytus, which were intended for another altarpiece in the church, that of the Virgin of Solitude, are still preserved in the church. Today they are adorned with modern repainting. Weise attributed them to the workshop of Felipe Bigarny, Azcárate found them to be similar to the reliefs of the high choir of Burgos Cathedral, while Portela considered them to be the work of Francisco Colonia (Portela, p. 62). In short, these are works from the Burgos school of that period, of great quality, no doubt due to the patronage exercised by the Catholic Monarchs over the church; they must have been part of an altarpiece dedicated to the life of the saint after whom the temple was named, perhaps the old main altarpiece.

Other pieces from the same altarpiece that was removed were stored until they were finally sold at public auction. This was recorded in the parish records in 1697: ‘in order to put up the new altarpiece, the old one that the church had was taken down and paintings, as well as everything else that could be sold and this has not been done and it has been left in a chapel, weighing it down... I order the aforementioned priests and steward to put and take out in public the aforementioned remains of the altarpiece, selling it and auctioning it off to the person or persons who give the most for it’. And so it was, the remains of the old main altarpiece that were in storage were sold and 1061 reales were obtained for what was left of it, some of which were left among the villagers and were gradually dispersed (Chico López, p. 119-122).

Added to these losses were others that occurred during the 19th century, as the French invasion and the War of Independence also caused damage to the heritage of Támara, and of course the consequences of the disentailment measures that mainly affected the Benedictine monastery of San Miguel in the same locality. The town's heritage also suffered significant damage in the 20th century, due to the sale of works of art and even theft — Erik the Belgian carried out robberies in Astudillo and Támara de Campos between 1979 and 1981.

In short, the dispersion of artistic pieces from the town has been remarkable. Several paintings from an altarpiece of Saint Hippolytus (Támara de Campos) are preserved in the National Art Museum of Catalonia: Saint Apollonia, Saint Lucy and Saint Barbara and another female martyr, The Visitation, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne before the Golden Gate. Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Annunciation, Epiphany, the Adoration of the Shepherds, Saint Margaret of Antioch, Saint Agatha, Saint Ursula and Saint Agnes. In addition to these seven panels, there are others scattered in other collections. And it is not only San Hipólito el Real that has suffered successive losses, see also the case of the former Benedictine monastery of San Miguel, in the same locality; from its temple, for example, the Marès Museum in Barcelona preserves two images from a 13th-century Calvary: the Virgin and Saint John.

Could these sculptures, Saint Jerome in his study and Saint Ambrose in his study, have formed part of the altarpiece that was dismantled and sold, or of the decorative ensemble of the old choir, affected by the collapse of the tower? Did these sculptures come from Támara?

Description

The carving preserves some traces of paint, vestiges that suggest that it must have been polychromed. On the other hand, the tracery that decorated the desk and the model of the temple that accompanies the saint have lost a large part of their openwork motifs. It is a work related to the Hispano-Flemish sculptural models of the Burgos artistic centre from around 1500 and the first years of that century.

Locations

• Unknown date

  municipality

  From Támara de Campos?, Támara de Campos (Spain)

• 1911

  private collection

  Georges Hoentschel, Paris (France) *

• 1911 - 1917

  private collection

  John Pierpont Morgan, New York (United States) *

• 1917 - present

  museum

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (United States)