The Story
St. Jerome Reading in an Italian Landscape, c. 1653. Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). Etching, engraving, and drypoint; sheet: 26 x 21.1 cm (10 1/4 x 8 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Ralph King, 1926.470
Created in 1653 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the power & politics tradition. Rembrandt van Rijn 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 etching, engraving, and drypoint, measuring Sheet: 26 x 21.1 cm (10 1/4 x 8 5/16 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Rembrandt van Rijn 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.”
