#quentin metsys

[laclefdescoeurs]

The Madonna of the Cherries, Quentin Metsys

[thouartadeadthing]

[ducissatenebrarum]

Saint Jerome in His Study (Detail)

Joos van Cleve, Netherlandish (Cleves, Germany c. 1485/1490 - 1540-1541 Antwerp, Belgium)

Previously attributed to Quentin Metsys, Netherlandish (Antwerp c. 1460 - 1530)

1521

Creation Place: Europe, Belgium, Antwerp

In 1521, while the German artist Albrecht Dürer was in Antwerp, he painted a picture of Saint Jerome in his study surrounded by objects symbolizing transience and death. The painting was a sensation, prefiguring the genre of memento mori, images that compelled contemplation of mortality. The type became a specialty of local workshops, including that of Joos van Cleve, who is associated with more than a dozen versions of this image.

The piece of paper tacked to the wall reads “Respice Finem” — consider the end. Grasping his head, Jerome points at a skull, whose craggy surface is rendered in detail. Beside him is a snuffed-out candle. Beyond such obvious symbols of death, the image is filled with subtler reminders of the passage of time. The crucifix, set above an Italianate ornamental frieze, casts a curved shadow on its niche, and next to it, a bird — possibly a finch, symbol of Christ’s Passion — is trapped in a cage.

#skull

[pomegranatetemples]

De maagd Maria (The Virgin Mary) (1525) - Quentin Metsys

[classic-art]

Christ as the Man of Sorrows

Quentin Metsys, c. 1520-1525

[koredzas]

Quentin Metsys - Apparition of the Angel to Saint Clara, Saint Inês de Assis and Saint Colette of Corbie. 1510 - 1520

[larsdatter]

Holbein: Capturing Character is at The Morgan Library & Museum through May 15, 2022.

[aura-eden]

Mirror details from Quentin Metsys, The Money Lender and His Wife (1514),

Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait (1434)

and Caravaggio, Martha and Mary Magdalene (c.1598)