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Lot Essay
In this unusual and newly discovered painting by the Antwerp artist William Key, an illusionistic curtain is pulled back to reveal St. Jerome seated at a desk. He appears in a contemplative posture with a quill in one hand and a writing board in the other. An open book, perhaps one of his biblical translations, sits on a stand before him and the skull that so often accompanies him in his role as hermit saint appears on a ledge at the upper left. Illusionistically painted passages such as the curtain, the skull, and the pen case that hangs over the edge of the table in the foreground lend the scene a specificity that contrasts with the saint's very generalized state of contemplation. The curtain suggests the privacy of the moment and Key's combination of intimacy and distance - the saint is entirely unaware of the viewer's presence - is characteristic of this type of religious subject, three-quarter length depictions of saints and apostles absorbed in thought that were popular through the end of the seventeenth century.
Key's conflation of elements of the saint's iconography makes for an unusual take on a traditional subject. St. Jerome is most often depicted in one of three ways: as the penitent hermit saint kneeling before a crucifix and beating his breast with a stone, as the man of learning in his study surrounded by books, and as a doctor of the church, wearing his cardinal's hat and robe. Neither of his most common attributes, the lion or the cardinal's hat, are included in Key's painting and his appearance, bare-chested and with a long beard and the weather worn hands of one who has braved the elements, is characteristic of his guise as hermit saint rather than man of learning. St. Jerome is best known within the Church for his translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin around 390. Together with the 'Confessions' of St. Augustine, St. Jerome's biblical commentary and extensive correspondence was popular among Renaissance scholars and humanists.
Key's only other depiction of the subject, a full-length St. Jerome in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, xiii, Leiden and Brussels, 1972, plate 134) shows the composition in reserve, St. Jerome in the act of writing and with his attribute, a lion. The same skull appears in the lower right hand corner of the Munich painting.
William Key belongs to the generation of Flemish painters that included Anthonis Mor, whose three-quarter length portraits were inspired by Italian artists such as Titian and appeared in important collections from England to Spain. Less is known about Key's oeuvre and St. Jerome is one of few history subjects by the artist known today. Among his surviving works, portraits are most common and can be found in museum collections in Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum), Copenhagen (Statens Museum for Kunst), and Philadelphia (John C. Johnson Collection). Key was known during his lifetime as both a history painter and portraitist and was one of the twenty-three artists included in Dominicus Lampsonius' True Effegies of the Most Imminent Painters (1572). Dutch theorist Karel van Mander, wrote in his Schilderboek (1604) that the lifelikeness of Key's portraits and the freedom of his brushwork made him prized above all others and sitters such as Cardinal Granvelle and the Duke of Alba attest to his skill and reputation as a portraitist. Rubens owned two paintings by William Key and one, of which he made a copy, may have been a self-portrait by the artist. Rubens' copy, now in Munich (Alte Pinakothek), is after Key's painting in Berlin (Gemäldegalerie).
Although the painting's earliest history is unknown, by the seventeenth-century St. Jerome was in the collection of Gaspar de Moscoso Osorio, the seventh count of Altamira and Marques de Almanzá. The family belonged to fourteenth-century Castillian aristocracy but, by the seventeenth-century, would have been based in Madrid and more dependent upon the court. Contemporary collections such as that of the Marques de Leganés (part of whose collection was acquired by Altamira) included paintings by other Flemish artists, among them Quinten Metsys, Joachim Patinir, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and painters of the Italian Renaissance, including, in the case of Leganés, eleven paintings by Titian. The taste for Titian in Madrid of the 1630s was related to his association with the Spanish monarchy at its most glorious moment and would have led collectors such as Altamira and Leganis to buy paintings like Key's St. Jerome and to seek portraitists such as Anthony van Dyck, both inspired by Titian's example and keepers of his artistic legacy.
William Key was born in Breda around 1516 and most likely studied with Pieter Coecke van Aelst in Antwerp before entering the studio of Lambert Lombard and Frans Floris in Liège. He became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1542. His pupils include Adriaen Thomasz. (c. 1544-after 1589) who is known for portraits of William the Silent, such as that in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Key died on 8 June 1568.
Key's conflation of elements of the saint's iconography makes for an unusual take on a traditional subject. St. Jerome is most often depicted in one of three ways: as the penitent hermit saint kneeling before a crucifix and beating his breast with a stone, as the man of learning in his study surrounded by books, and as a doctor of the church, wearing his cardinal's hat and robe. Neither of his most common attributes, the lion or the cardinal's hat, are included in Key's painting and his appearance, bare-chested and with a long beard and the weather worn hands of one who has braved the elements, is characteristic of his guise as hermit saint rather than man of learning. St. Jerome is best known within the Church for his translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin around 390. Together with the 'Confessions' of St. Augustine, St. Jerome's biblical commentary and extensive correspondence was popular among Renaissance scholars and humanists.
Key's only other depiction of the subject, a full-length St. Jerome in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, xiii, Leiden and Brussels, 1972, plate 134) shows the composition in reserve, St. Jerome in the act of writing and with his attribute, a lion. The same skull appears in the lower right hand corner of the Munich painting.
William Key belongs to the generation of Flemish painters that included Anthonis Mor, whose three-quarter length portraits were inspired by Italian artists such as Titian and appeared in important collections from England to Spain. Less is known about Key's oeuvre and St. Jerome is one of few history subjects by the artist known today. Among his surviving works, portraits are most common and can be found in museum collections in Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum), Copenhagen (Statens Museum for Kunst), and Philadelphia (John C. Johnson Collection). Key was known during his lifetime as both a history painter and portraitist and was one of the twenty-three artists included in Dominicus Lampsonius' True Effegies of the Most Imminent Painters (1572). Dutch theorist Karel van Mander, wrote in his Schilderboek (1604) that the lifelikeness of Key's portraits and the freedom of his brushwork made him prized above all others and sitters such as Cardinal Granvelle and the Duke of Alba attest to his skill and reputation as a portraitist. Rubens owned two paintings by William Key and one, of which he made a copy, may have been a self-portrait by the artist. Rubens' copy, now in Munich (Alte Pinakothek), is after Key's painting in Berlin (Gemäldegalerie).
Although the painting's earliest history is unknown, by the seventeenth-century St. Jerome was in the collection of Gaspar de Moscoso Osorio, the seventh count of Altamira and Marques de Almanzá. The family belonged to fourteenth-century Castillian aristocracy but, by the seventeenth-century, would have been based in Madrid and more dependent upon the court. Contemporary collections such as that of the Marques de Leganés (part of whose collection was acquired by Altamira) included paintings by other Flemish artists, among them Quinten Metsys, Joachim Patinir, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and painters of the Italian Renaissance, including, in the case of Leganés, eleven paintings by Titian. The taste for Titian in Madrid of the 1630s was related to his association with the Spanish monarchy at its most glorious moment and would have led collectors such as Altamira and Leganis to buy paintings like Key's St. Jerome and to seek portraitists such as Anthony van Dyck, both inspired by Titian's example and keepers of his artistic legacy.
William Key was born in Breda around 1516 and most likely studied with Pieter Coecke van Aelst in Antwerp before entering the studio of Lambert Lombard and Frans Floris in Liège. He became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1542. His pupils include Adriaen Thomasz. (c. 1544-after 1589) who is known for portraits of William the Silent, such as that in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Key died on 8 June 1568.