The Story
St. Jerome Seated near a Pollard Willow, 1512. Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528). Drypoint; image: 20.7 x 18.1 cm (8 1/8 x 7 1/8 in.); sheet: 20.7 x 18.1 cm (8 1/8 x 7 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Ralph King, 1925.72
Created in 1512 during the Renaissance period, this work belongs firmly within the portrait tradition. Albrecht Dürer worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in drypoint, measuring Image: 20.7 x 18.1 cm (8 1/8 x 7 1/8 in.); Sheet: 20.7 x 18.1 cm (8 1/8 x 7 1/8 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Albrecht Dürer builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
