St. Jerome Hearing the Trumpet of the Last Judgment

Antonio Castillo y Saavedra

about 1645–1650

Reed pen and brown ink, heightened with white gouache, on light blue-green prepared paper; black chalk and dark brown ink framing lines, Reed pen, Ink, Chalk

J. Paul Getty Museum

A man sits with a lion at his side, looking up at a trumpet in the sky. He is reaching his arm upwards. Living in the wilderness as a hermit, Saint Jerome heard trumpets sounding the Last Judgment; looking up, he saw the cross with Christ's body rising in front of him. Here the trumpet appears so tantalizingly close that Jerome reaches up to try to touch it. His attributes, a lion and a book, surround him. Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra built the dynamic composition from lively, quick strokes. Hatching and cross-hatching emphasize the rippling muscles on the saint's arms and back and elaborate the folds of fabric around his waist. They suggest the undergrowth on the left and the lion's fur. "Acquisitions/1994." The J. Paul Getty Muse