DÜRER Albrecht (1471 - 1528) - "Saint Jerome in His Study". 1514. Original burin. Signed with the artist's monogram and dated in the composition on the right. Ref: Bartsch, no. 60. Meder, no. 59c. Proof of the c/f state (according to Meder), before the curved scratch on the ceiling, on laid paper. The scholar Saint Jerome (c. 347-420 CE) diligently translates the Bible while seated in his comfortable study. He is accompanied by a lion who became his faithful companion when Jerome removed a thorn from his paw. As well as being kind to animals, Jerome was humble but extremely learned, able to translate the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin, a language that ordinary people could read. Dürer offers us a spectacular spectacle of light entering through tiny round panes of glass. Dürer's etchings deal seven times with the theme of St. Jerome, one of the most represented sacred figures in art, both over and under the Alps, and who, in the early 16th century, became for humanists the exemplary symbol of the Christian scholar. Considering the sequence of Dürer's three "Meisterstiche", or masterpieces - The Knight, Death and the Devil, Saint Jerome in his Cell and Melancholy - the Saint Jerome reaches a degree of perfection unique in his work and in the art of engraving. Dürer's Saint Jerome is unanimously regarded as the most accomplished masterpiece of the burin. The artist's exceptional treatment of contour lines and hatching, adapted to each model, simultaneously renders the graphic form of the object and the pictorial effects of textures. 24 x 18.6 cm. Condition B (subject trimmed at top and bottom, minor restorations).