Saint Jerome in the Wilderness

Paolo Veronese maintained an active workshop that included members of his family to meet the demand for paintings in his style. This picture may have been a collaboration between the artist’s son, Carlo Caliari, and brother Benedetto Caliari, who painted the landscape and figural elements, respectively. The broad brushstrokes do not demonstrate the freedom or effects of flickering light found in Veronese’s own work.

Created in 1585 during the 1550-1600 period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Workshop of Veronese worked at a moment when the rediscovery of classical antiquity reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

As Oil on canvas (134.8 × 176.6 cm (53 1/8 × 69 7/8 in.); Framed: 163.2 × 203.9 × 6.4 cm (64 1/4 × 80 1/4 × 2 1/2 in.)), the work shows the tool marks and layering choices typical of Workshop of Veronese's output in this period — decisions about ground, underpainting, and glaze that a photograph can only partly convey.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. The iconography draws on scripture and classical myth, but the emotional weight is entirely human.

Housed at Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, the painting has passed through the hands of collectors, dealers, and institutions before reaching public view — a provenance that is itself part of the object's story.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”