Saint Jerome

This design is for a type of stained glass produced in the Low Countries during the early 16th century. The panes were often circular and small. Such a highly finished drawing might have been shown to a patron before work began on the glass itself. The artist was a productive Antwerp Mannerist painter whose works lack signatures or other documentation. Historians assigned the name Master of 1518 based on the date inscribed on one of his altarpieces.

Saint Jerome is shown here as a gaunt, elderly scholar in a monastic setting. Accompanying him is the (charmingly elongated) lion that became his protector after Jerome removed a thorn from the beast’s paw. That tender scene appears in miniature in the background.