Saint Jerome

About the artwork

Charles II bought this small painting at Breda in 1660 as a Saint Jerome “of the manner of Albert Durer.” An 1818 inventory assigned it to Catalani; Vitale Bloch recognized La Tour’s authorship in 1947. Its subject survived those changes more securely than the name of its painter.

The Royal Collection describes Jerome’s left eye as impaired. The spectacles thus help him work around a particular difficulty, rather than simply serving as a scholar’s attribute. The painting had moved from Whitehall to Kensington by 1697 and so escaped the Whitehall Palace fire of 1698. Its survival lets us still examine the tiny optical effect of glass, eye and beard.

Featured in: Georges de La Tour’s Bible Paintings: The Candle Painter Hidden Under Other Names

What does Psalm 119:18 mean?

Psalm 119 repeatedly asks for help in understanding and following God’s instruction. Verse 18 is a petition for opened eyes, not merely for more information. Its speaker depends on God to perceive what is already present in the law.

Jerome’s spectacles supply an ordinary aid to physical sight; the prayer asks for a different kind of perception. The connection is thematic. The painting is not known to illustrate this psalm, and the psalm is not speaking about the later Christian translator.

The prayer to have one’s eyes opened finds a precise visual companion in Jerome’s raised spectacles, while distinguishing optical clarity from understanding.

Sources

Royal Collection, Hampton Court (per inventory note) collection record.

Image source and rights declaration.

Psalm 119 — Berean Standard Bible. The paired text read with its surrounding chapter.

Georges de La Tour’s Bible Paintings: The Candle Painter Hidden Under Other Names. Exact-work research, history and interpretive qualifications for this reading.

Les Peintres de la réalité en France au XVIIe siècle (1934). Historical catalogue, used with the owning institution’s current attribution and dating.