Flemish School, 17th Century

Probably J. Marciari and S. Boorsch (eds.), Francesco Vanni: Art in Late Renaissance Siena, p. 111, cat. no. 28, under footnote 2. 

On an uncradled oak panel with a single vertical join at center. The panel is slightly bowed from right to left. The paint surface is beautifully preserved with exceptionally good detail and strong coloration. The vertical join has separated slightly and is visible to the naked eye. Two small horizontal surface scratches can be seen at lower center edge. Under UV light: very little fluoresces. Only a few very small and isolated retouches on face, arms, hands, hair and sky. There is some retouching along the join which runs from top edge down through left side of head and through left hand and skull. Overall looks quite good. Offered in a black and gilt cassetta style frame.
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The design of this striking painting was conceived by the Sienese painter Francesco Vanni (1563-1610). Vanni's composition was no doubt popularized and disseminated within Italy and northward through a print (fig. 1) executed in circa 1595 by Agostino Carracci (see J. Marciari and S. Boorsch (eds.), Francesco Vanni: Art in Late Renaissance Siena, pp. 110-111, cat. no. 28, reproduced). The orientation of the present painting follows that of the Carracci print, whose graphic style from this moment took much influence from Hendrick Goltzius, thus the inherently northern Mannerist feeling of this work is unsurprising. Indeed it would seem most plausible that Vanni created the composition for the intention of engraving, as evidenced by a number of extant drawings, and not for a possible lost painted original. The author of this striking and crisply drawn Saint Jerome, however, remains a fascinating mystery, though in its Mannerist handling and acidic coloration the work would appear to have been painted by a northern artist working in the early decades of the 17th century. That it is painted on a northern oak panel further substantiates this theory.