St. Jerome in his Study

That Dürer devoted more of his prints to depictions of St. Jerome (340/345-420) than to any other saint is a testament to the weight that the figure carried among Renaissance humanists. Perhaps best known for his work on the Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible, St. Jerome was also a letter-writer and scholar. This engraving shows the saint seated at the far end of his study, all of his attention turned to his writing on the desk below. The study and the various objects contained within it are arranged according to a rigid and ordered system of perspective, illuminated by the soft light that filters in through the window. This structured arrangement lends a sense of calm to the scene, aptly evoking the saint's monastic, scholarly lifestyle.