St. Jerome (recto); Kneeling Male Nude, with His Head and Shoulders Leaning Back (verso)

Juan del Castillo

about 1630–1650

Pen and brown ink, Pen, Ink

J. Paul Getty Museum

A seated, bearded man in robes is depicted in a pen and ink sketch. He is shown from the chest up, with his head tilted back and his gaze directed upwards. The sketch includes hatching to suggest shading and form. Saint Jerome sits at a small pedestal desk within a niche, apparently writing in a book that he supports with his left hand. Casting a deep shadow over the right side of Jerome's body and the back of the niche, the hatching hints at the depth of the shallow space. Although by the mid-1600s this depiction was considered a little old-fashioned, artists in the Renaissance frequently showed the intellectual saint at work in his study. Juan del Castillo changed his mind about the composition in several minor areas. He altered the saint's cap to a cardinal's hat and reduced the drapery in the lower left, part of which originally fell outs