Saint Jerome

In the Southern Netherlands we often find examples of seventeenth-century religious sculpture in the churches themselves. Many richly decorated original gothic altars, choir stalls and pulpits, as well as separate sculptures, were lost in the iconoclasm. Many of them were replaced with baroque sculpture. The origins of the larger than life statue of Jerome is not known. It represents the…

In the Southern Netherlands we often find examples of seventeenth-century religious sculpture in the churches themselves. Many richly decorated original gothic altars, choir stalls and pulpits, as well as separate sculptures, were lost in the iconoclasm. Many of them were replaced with baroque sculpture. The origins of the larger than life statue of Jerome is not known. It represents the half-naked standing figure of the saint holding a papyrus scroll in his right hand. St. Jerome was a respected Church Father. He wrote a Latin translation of the Bible, symbolised here by the papyrus scroll. Later he became a hermit in the desert. The skull in his left hand, a symbol of the transience of life, reminds us of his life as a hermit. The sculpture is attributed to Artus Quellinus II, who worked mainly in Antwerp.