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A New Source for Andrea del Castagno's Vision of St. Jerome

1998; University of California; Volume: 29; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

1557-0290

Adrienne DeAngelis,

Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

A N EW S OURCE FOR A NDREA DEL C ASTAGNO ’ S V ISION OF S T . J EROME * A DRIENNE D E A NGELIS The extraordinary imagery of Andrea del Castagno’s Vision of St. Jerome has never been completely explained. Painted for the chapel of Girolamo Corboli in Santissima Annunziata in Florence, the fresco altarpiece is traditionally dated to about 1454–1455. The saint, nearly nude in his torn gown, stands with one hand clutching the bloody stone with which he has been beating his breast in an act of penitence. His arms flung wide from his body, he seems to have been stopped in his act of self-flagellation by the vision above his head: a severely foreshortened crucified Christ supported by God the Father, under whose chin floats the dove of the Holy Spirit. The members of the Trinity shown in this manner form the Gnadenstuhl, the Throne of Mercy. 1 Even the lion beside him seems to share in St. Jerome’s experience. Its head thrown back at the same angle, its mouth is opened in an outcry that in its animalistic response suggests less an understanding of the vision above than a reflexive imitation of its master’s transported state. 2 Flanking the saint are two heavily draped female figures who also look up at this extraordinary depiction of the Trinity. The expression of St. Jerome and the placement of the Gnadenstuhl as emerging from behind his head, as if out of the sky and into the viewer’s worldly space, implies that St. Jerome’s penitential self-flagellation has been so compelling that he has re-evoked his desert experiences of the Trinity for them to see. St. Jerome looks up to regard this group with an expression less innocently awe-struck than that of his companions, but with a rapt, contemplative fervor that suggests his familiarity with the experience (fig. 1). * A version of this paper was given at the Renaissance Society of America conference in Vancouver, BC, in 1997. I would like to thank the organizers for selecting my paper, and Professor Sarah Blake McHam and the editors of Comitatus for their advice and assistance. 1 The Biblical source for this personification of the Trinity has been traced to Hebrews 4:15– 16: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” The emergence of the Trinity as a subject in art from the fourteenth century has been linked to the establishment of the feast of the Trinity in 1334; see Eve Borsook, The Mural Painters of Tuscany (New York, 1980), 58. On depictions of the Trinity, see Philippe Verdier, “Le Trinite debout de Champmol,” in Etudes d’art francais offertes a Charles Sterling (Paris, 1975): 65–90. 2 Millard Meiss, The Great Age of Fresco: Discoveries, Recoveries and Survivals (New York, 1970), 153, makes the observation that the lion’s reaction reflects that of its master. C OMITATUS 29 (1998): 113–135.