Rembrandt's Reformation of a Catholic Subject

Rembrandt etched the subject of Saint Jerome in prayer three times in his early career. In each of these etchings, he transformed elements of the traditional iconography of the penitent Jerome, who physically chastises himself for his sins, to emphasize the repentant nature of Jerome's prayer, or the inward, spiritual meditation upon his failings. Through such transformations of a long-standing iconographic tradition, Rembrandt created images of a saint that would be acceptable to many Protestants as well as Catholics.Two explanations can be offered to account for these changes. Rembrandt's conception of Saint Jerome was consonant with his general interest in older figures, internally engaged, an interest that was marked in his earliest works. At the same time, Rembrandt would also have recognized that his revised imagery of Saint Jerome, presented in the print format, could achieve wider distribution in Europe than the more confessionally limited type on which he based his works

Art · Art history · Library science · SAINT · Subject (documents · Architecture and Art History Studies · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Philosophy · Visual Culture and Art Theory