Saint Jerome Hearing the Trumpet of the Last Judgment
Medium
Etching, engraving, and drypoint; first state of two (Brown)
Dimensions
Sheet: 12 15/16 × 9 5/8 in. (32.8 × 24.4 cm) Plate: 12 11/16 × 9 1/16 in. (32.3 × 23 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.512.5
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the dramatic etching *Saint Jerome Hearing the Trumpet the Last Judgment* (1621), Jusepe de Ribera—known as "Lo Spletto" or "the Little Spaniardcaptures a pivotal moment in Christian iconography. The Spanish-born artist, working in Naples during the early Baroque era, portrays the aged saint in rapt contemplation, his emaciated form illuminated against a shadowy void as the apocalyptic trumpet sounds. Jerome, the scholar-saint famed for translating the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), is traditionally shown as a penitent hermit with a skull symbolizing mortality; here, Ribera heightens the t...