--- title: Hermit Saints Triptych subtitle: thumbnail: ../../thumbs/CAT2-thumb.jpg section: documents logo: bosch weight: 2 cat: 2 --- #### [Catalogue Raisonné](https://data01.universumdigitalis.com/bosch/data/PDF/CAT2.pdf) [Technical Study](https://data01.universumdigitalis.com/bosch/data/PDF/CAT2RR.pdf) # Hermit Saints Triptych$\tiny{^{[\text{CAT2}]}}$
**Hieronymus Bosch** c. 1495–1505 Oil on oak panel, left wing 85.4 x 29.2 cm; central panel 85.7 x 60 cm; right wing 85.7 x 28.9 cm Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice Signed central panel, lower right: Jheronimŭs bosch BRCP examination and documentation data: Venice, 14–25 November 2011; BRCP, _Technical Studies_, cat. 2, RR 27–31, 40.
Hieronymus Bosch, Hermit Saints Triptych, c. 1495–1505, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
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 Hieronymus Bosch, Hermit Saints Triptych, c. 1495–1505, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
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 Hieronymus Bosch, Hermit Saints Triptych, c. 1495–1505, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
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Hieronymus Bosch, Hermit Saints Triptych, c. 1495–1505, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.
## Condition Originally the wings were painted on both sides and the triptych had arched tops. The triptych was cropped, including the two bottom edges of the wings, which were slightly lowered relative to the central panel. The non-original rectangular format was achieved with wooden inserts and the panel reverses were thinned and cradled. This has produced undulating surfaces and some panel cracks. Overall paint and ground are well adhered, but the surface is quite abraded and locally severely worn. Copper-green paint has discoloured, resulting in a browner appearance of the landscape. Red lakes have faded and light paints have increased in transparency, resulting in the shimmering through of the underlying composition, mainly in the central panel with the significantly altered saint. The disturbing rigatino-style retouchings, the greyish surface layer, and the poor varnish resulted in an uneven appearance of the paint surface. Conservation issues were addressed in the 2014–15 full treatment of the painting. ## Provenance Before 1733–1838 Venice, Palazzo Ducale; 1838–1919 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum; 1919–2011 Venice, Palazzo Ducale; since 2011 Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia. ## Literature BRCP, _Technical Studies_, cat. 2, RR 27–31, 40; Fischer 2013, 40, 179–80, 183, 249–50; Koreny 2012, 28, 95, 230; Silver 2006, 211–18; Klein 2001, 125; Laemers 2001, 77–85; Aikema 2001, 25–31; Koldeweij, Vandenbroeck and Vermet 2001, 22, 88; Limentani Virdis 1992, 92–101; Marijnissen 1987, 210–13; Unverfehrt 1980, 25; Friedländer ENP V 1969, 47, 52, 86; Tolnay 1965, I, 268–72; II, 366–67; Von Baldass 1943, 33–34, 35, 69, 70, 86–87, 243–44; Friedländer 1927, 84, 95, 151. ## Analysis In what was once a triptych with an arched top, Bosch uses the early Christian saints Anthony, Jerome and Giles (Aegidius) to express the struggle for chastity and renunciation of the world. The emphasis here – more so than in Bosch's other painting of Saint Jerome, now in Ghent (cat. 1) – is on strife and penance. Jerome has not only withdrawn from the world, he has explicitly sought out the remains of a pagan culture in which to confront it and to be bolstered in his faith.
2.1 Signature (cat. 2B).
## Form and composition Three saints, unperturbed by the world around them, kneel in pious meditation in a landscape running across all three panels. They are immediately identifiable from their respective attributes: Jerome has his cardinal's robe and hat; Anthony is surrounded by demons and tempted by a naked woman; and Giles is pierced with an arrow and accompanied by a hind. The three separate panels originally belonged to a triptych with an arched top, corresponding in form with the _Saint Wilgefortis Triptych_ (cat. 8) – also present in Venice for many years – and with the Bruges _Last Judgement_ (cat. 16). The first firm reference to the _Hermit Saints Triptych_ dates from a 1733 description of the paintings in the Doge's Palace, where it hung in a corridor. It is listed there as a three-part painting with a Saint Jerome and two other saints.[1] The next time it is recorded, in 1771, it was displayed with the _Wilgefortis Triptych_ in a much more prestigious location, the Sala dei Tre Capi del Consiglio dei Dieci.[2] It is likely that the _Hermit Saints Triptych_ had already been dismantled by that time and remounted as three separate panels in a single large frame.[3] This was probably done shortly before 1740 – well before the two triptychs were taken to Vienna in 1838.[4] During their time in Vienna between 1838 and 1919, the three Hermit Saints panels were thinned significantly and cradled, resulting in the loss of any painting there might have been on the panel reverses.[5] They were subsequently cropped and expanded, probably in 1895, to obtain the current rectangular shape.[6] The latter operation had far-reaching consequences for the ensemble. Not only were all three panels cropped at the top, but the wings were cut down slightly at the bottom edge too. Even before these changes, however, the final painting differed significantly from the version that was initially planned and prepared; the saints themselves and sections of the background were substantially altered in the course of painting.[7] Anthony, for instance, seems to have been positioned lower down in the original configuration of the left wing, and a larger jug was left in reserve where we now see a brown patch in the lower left of the canvas of what was originally a red tent cloth. The figure of Saint Jerome in the central panel was originally sketched and painted not only a little lower down, but also considerably larger; this version of the saint was ultimately overpainted with a smaller one and the background too was substantially altered. The changes are comparable with those undergone by the _Saint Anthony Triptych_ in Lisbon (cat. 4), in which the artist, on further reflection, significantly reduced the size of the relatively large, partially completed figure of the saint. The underdrawing of the central panel of the Venetian triptych is similar in style to those of the other panels. The figure of Jerome as originally sketched seems to be clutching the long beam of a cross with both hands. Since this form was left in reserve in his much larger robe, it can also be made out clearly in the X-radiograph in which the space left for the cross-beam can likewise still be made out around the much smaller painted crucifix. This would have been iconographically unique, although it does recall the painting in Ghent (cat. 1), in which Jerome embraces a small crucifix. ![2.2 XR (cat. 2B).](cat2/CR_2_2.jpg) Saint Giles was considerably larger and shown kneeling in the first painted version of the right wing, in which he also had a book, which was prepared towards the saint's right. His hermitage was originally a structure with walls and a larger window in the back wall, with a door next to it. This was subsequently altered to the cave we see now – a more appropriate dwelling for an anchorite. ## Asceticism The final composition shows Jerome kneeling in desolate surroundings. The ruin in which he is placed consists of a rising stretch of wall, remnants of a floor and a vaulted cellar. His red cardinal's hat lies in front of him to the right. The lion, viewed from the back, is painted in the far left background, standing at the water's edge. It is hardly conspicuous, but the animal's tail leaves no room for doubt that this is the beast that became Jerome's companion after the saint removed a splinter from its paw. Immediately behind the kneeling hermit, the statue of a pagan divinity tumbles from the truncated column on which it was presumably standing. The tottering idol, which has already lost the arm with which it once wielded a sword, heightens the sense of Jerome's resolution. A praying man, almost a mirror image of Saint Jerome, is painted on the lower part of the pseudo-antique column. The motif beneath him alludes to Christ's crown of thorns, while above him is the sky with sun, moon and stars. The scene recalls Christ's Agony in the Garden, but in this pagan setting it is no doubt intended to represent its antithesis.[8] Jerome holds a stone in his right hand, with which he beats his chest in self-chastisement. His left hand touches the crucifix standing on the throne-like structure, which the cross turns into a kind of altar. Several areas of paint loss to the left of the throne have been restored in a neutral colour, complicating the interpretation of the magnificently painted relief of the man who is about to mount the famously untameable unicorn. The story of Judith and Holofernes is painted in monochrome on the outside of the throne; the yellowish-brown paint has been applied with great skill, wet-in-wet, with highlights in lead white mixed with blue. The decapitated body of Holofernes lies inside a tent on a camp bed, next to which a guard continues to sleep soundly. Judith emerges from the tent, a sword raised in her right hand and the severed head in her left, which she will place in the basket held by her maidservant (Judith 13 : 6–10). The two scenes depicted on the throne – Judith, the biblical heroine who saved her city while preserving her honour; and the unicorn, which according to legend could only be tamed by a virgin – undoubtedly allude to Jerome's ideal of chastity and to his struggle to conquer his sinful thoughts (see also cat. 1). The scene that appears beneath the one with Judith and Holofernes is very different and is intended as a contrast with the virtuous Old Testament figure. A man, naked from the waist down, has crawled into a basket. A stick inserted into his backside serves as a perch for a decoy bird – probably the tiniest owl in Bosch's entire oeuvre.
2.3 Idol (cat. 2B).
2.4 Saint Jerome (cat. 2B).
2.5 Unicorn (cat. 2B).
2.6 Judith and Holofernes (cat. 2B).
2.7 Man in basket (cat. 2B).
In his prologue to the Book of Judith, Jerome explicitly presented the Jewish heroine as a model of chastity to be emulated.[9] The Church Father's influence as both an ascetic and a Bible translator grew immensely towards the end of the fifteenth century, by which time his prologues to sixteen Old and New Testament books were being included in many new editions of the Bible.[10] Several versions exist in which Jerome's authorial role is emphasized both visually and in the text: in the Bible published in Nuremberg in 1501, for instance, and in the Lübeck edition of 1494.[11] A large illustration at the front of the latter, Low German, Bible shows the saint working on his translation, and again in the background as a penitent. What is more, each of Jerome's prologues in this Lübeck edition is accompanied by a woodcut of him in his study, emphasizing his work as a translator and scholar. In the _Hermit Saints Triptych_, by contrast, the book that is the most important attribute of this scholarly status is found in the underdrawing below the cardinal's hat, but was not included in the final painting. Rather than his intellectual powers, therefore, what brings Jerome into such direct contact here with Christ and the redemption he offers is primarily his senses: the physical pain in his chest, the gaze he fixes on the crucifix, and the tentative way he touches the cross. Saints Anthony and Giles, like Jerome, have withdrawn from society to devote their lives to God. Anthony is shown in the left wing, surrounded by a horde of relatively harmless-looking little monsters. The real temptation confronting him takes the form of a naked woman bathing – the personification of the lustful thoughts which Jerome sought to banish.[12] Saint Anthony closes his eyes to worldly desire and does not succumb to the illusions conjured up by the devil. Giles, meanwhile, appears in the right wing at a desk or table on which lie a book and a scroll.[13] He has been struck in the chest by an arrow intended for a hind that God had sent to him, and which provided him with milk from time to time. The deer herself lies unscathed at Giles's feet. Another, almost invisible little owl has been painted behind him. The male figure peering through a window into the dark cave where the saint stands in prayer is probably the king who, following in the trail of his huntsmen, discovered the wounded hermit. According to the _Passionael_, he was 'coninck Kaerle' – Charles Martel, the Frankish 'mayor of the palace'. Charles offered the hermit medical assistance, but Giles refused, going so far as to ask God 'that he might never be healed as long as he lived'.[14] Like Jerome, Giles willingly endured physical pain, though not as a form of penance, but because 'virtue is perfected in sickness'.[15]
2.8 Saint Anthony’s temptress (cat. 2A).
The book on the lectern is no doubt a Bible or a prayerbook. The lettering on the scroll is written in black with certain words picked out in red; this might refer to an important document mentioned at a later point in Giles's vita, namely the letter that an angel supposedly placed on the altar of the monastery Giles founded. It described a sin committed by Charles Martel that was so grave the mayor of the palace dared not confess it; yet it would nevertheless be forgiven if Giles were to hear the confession. Absolution was only possible, in other words, through the intermediary of the extraordinarily pious Giles who, like Saints Anthony and Jerome in the other panels, had achieved a state of physical and spiritual purity. ## Details
2.9 Hermit Saints Triptych (cat. 2C).
![2.10 Garden of Earthly Delights (cat. 21A).](cat2/CR_2_10.jpg)
2.11 Temptation of Saint Anthony (cat. 4C).
The three panels of the triptych contain a number of details that also appear in other works by Bosch in a virtually identical or at least strongly related form, suggesting that drawn or painted models were kept in his studio and were used whenever convenient. There is a porcupine with antlers, for instance, on the hill above Saint Giles's cave, of which similar specimens appear in the Paradise wing of the _Garden of Earthly Delights_ and in the right wing of the _Saint Anthony Triptych_. The great tit hanging upside down from a branch behind Giles is also found (reversed) in the tree in the _Wayfarer_ in Rotterdam and on a branch of the tree stump in _Saint Jerome in Ghent_; it also appears – somewhat larger and more detailed, this time – in the central panel of the _Garden of Earthly Delights_ (cat. 21), just above the couple in the mussel shell. Giles's head strongly resembles that of the Jerome figure in the central panel of the Ghent painting and the monk leaning forward in the central panel of the _Wilgefortis Triptych_ (cat. 1 and 8). The body of the nude woman appearing to Saint Anthony, meanwhile, is virtually identical (although reversed) to that of the woman standing on the roof of the building on the left of the central panel of the Vienna _Last Judgement_ (cat. 17). In Saint Jerome's T-shaped crucifix, lastly, the titulus at the top is fixed to a narrow protruding batten. We find precisely the same unusual construction in the crucifix embraced by Jerome in the Ghent panel, in the cross of the Brussels _Crucifixion_, and in the crucifix to which Saint Anthony prays in the central panel of the Lisbon triptych.[16]
2.12 Death and the Miser (cat. 19C).
2.13 Saint Jerome (cat. 1).
2.14 Calvary (cat. 15).
2.15 Temptation of Saint Anthony (cat. 4B).
2.16 Hermit Saints Triptych (cat. 2B).
## References 1. '… un altro simile pure in trè comparti con un San Girolamo, e due altri Santi …' Zanetti 1733, 109. 2. '… Sono sei compartimenti. Nei primi v'è S. Girolamo nel mezzo ed altri Santi dai lati. …' Zanetti 1771, 491. 3. Ludwig (1901, IV) also described the triptych as three separate panels in a single frame, based on the Prospetto A – the inventory prepared in Venice in 1837: 'Tavola con cornice d'oro'. 4. Ludwig (1901, IV; source: _Codex misc. Des Archivio di Stato_, incorporating 'Inventario dell'incomparabile tesoro delle Pitture [Magistrato del Sal]. Aug. Schaeffer, Kunsthistorische Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses') quoted in 1899 the precise description of no. 651 from the (then) forthcoming museum catalogue, which makes no reference to painted panel backs. Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, 'Briefwisseling voor 1945', letter dated 11 July 1899. 5. See also the _Saint Wilgefortis Triptych_ (cat. 8). 6. For more information, see BRCP, _Technical Studies_, cat. 2, RR 27–31, 40. The dimensions after cropping are recorded for the first time in a note dating from 1895: Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Evidenzbuch für die Restaurierungen (1885ff), Post no. 616: Dep. I Nr. 39 [nb = 40] / Evidenzbuch 185 / Neuaufn.: 651 / alte Bezeichnung: 25 / Bosch / 'Martyrium des heiligen Antonius'. These measurements are also given in Schaeffer's letter, 11 July 1899 (see note 4 above): 'Mittelbild 83,5 x 61 cm. Jedes Flügelbild 83,5 x 29 cm.' 7. A detailed description of these changes can be found in BRCP, _Technical Studies_, cat. 2, RR 27–31, 40. 8. Mark 14:35–36, 39; Matthew 26:39–40, 42; Luke 22: 41–44. If Bosch had intended to show Christ here in the Garden of Gethsemane, he would have made the scene more recognizable by adding the cup from which Jesus did not wish to drink. Cf. the closed wings of the _Temptation of Saint Anthony_ (cat. 4). 9. 'Nemet to iuw iudith de wedewen een bilde der kuscheyt.' _Biblia_, Lübeck 1494. 10. The 1477 _Biblia Latina_ published by Anton Koberger in Nuremberg, for example, or the 1483 _Biblia Germanica_. 11. _Biblia cum Concordantiis Veteris et Novi Testamenti; Sanctus Hieronymus interpres Biblie_, Nuremberg (Anton Koberger) 1501. The title page has a woodcut showing Saint Jerome doing penance in the desert and also working in his study. _De Biblie mit vlitigher achtinghe: recht na deme latine in dudesck auerghesettet. Mit vorluchtinghe vnde glose: des hoch-ghelerden Postillatoers Nicolai de lyra Unde anderer velen hillighen doctoren_, Lübeck (Steffen Arndes) 1494. 12. In his letter to Eustochium (no. 22), Jerome wrote of how he had seen dancing girls during his seclusion in the desert: 'I thought nevertheless that I was among the pleasures and the dancing of the girls of Rome' ([English translation](http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001022.htm)). Anton Koberger also published the letter as a booklet in 1494. 13. _Passionael Somerstuc_ 1482, fol. 175–76v. 14. 'dat hi nymmermeer also langhe als hi levede mochte ghenesen'. 15. 'die doghet volmaect wort in cranche'. 16. The V-pattern in the floor tiles also resembles the Lisbon painting. It has almost entirely disappeared in that work, but it can still be made out clearly in the copy in Brussels. See Stroo et al. 2001, 101.