Sunlight pours through bull's-eye windows and lands on the floor. Jerome is hunched over his desk, glowing with a halo that looks suspiciously like part of the sunbeam. A lion sleeps on the stairs next to a dog, and the whole room hums like a held breath.
Dürer made this engraving in 1514, the same year as Melencolia I. Together with Knight, Death and the Devil they are known as his three master engravings, and the three are often read as a set. The knight is action, Melencolia is brooding thought, and Jerome is thought at peace.
The clutter is on purpose. A skull sits on the windowsill and an hourglass hangs near the saint, the two classic reminders that time runs out. A giant gourd hangs from the ceiling beams, which seems odd until you know the story. Jerome and Augustine once argued over how to translate a plant in the Book of Jonah, and the gourd was Jerome's choice. A cardinal's hat hangs on the wall because later tradition made Jerome a cardinal, though the office did not yet exist in his day. His slippers sit neatly under the bench.
The lion comes from a legend. Jerome supposedly pulled a thorn from a lion's paw, and the grateful animal followed him ever after. The sleeping pair at the bottom show the same trust.
Dürer also showed off here. He rendered a wood ceiling, glass, stone, fur, and sunlight, all with only lines cut in copper.
Dürer's Saint Jerome in His Study appears on our: