Saint Jerome

While he did produce a small number of etchings himself, Guido Reni nonetheless appreciated the possibilities offered by circulating his works via prints made in collaboration with other artists. Here Jerome appears more pensive and scholarly than in the nearby woodcut (1955.1070), made after a different Reni drawing, which shows him striking himself in the chest with a rock. While only Coriolano included an explicit halo, elegantly inscribed with the tan color block, both sheets movingly depict an impassioned saint striving for spiritual perfection in the wilderness.