May 2, 1519

Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 to May 2, 1519) memorably used cats in his art. Less well known is the lion he included in a portrait of St. Jerome. A lion he never finished painting but obviously from this picture, we can see the lion was a major focus in the canvas.





A recent article says that Leonardo da Vinci worked 40 years on this canvas.


'"St. Jerome Praying in the Wilderness"...is part of the Vatican Museum’s collection, which, inconceivably vast though it is, only has this one painting by Leonardo da Vinci. As a matter of fact, it is the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in Rome. It is also one of maybe a half-dozen paintings whose attribution to Leonardo da Vinci has never been in doubt.

'Four of the 15 or so surviving Leonardo paintings are incomplete, and St. Jerome is one of the four. The lion is still a drawn outline, as are Jerome’s foot, his robe draped on the ground, left hand, outstretched right arm holding a stone, one of his attributes, with which he will beat his chest. A church in the upper right of the panel is also a rough outline.

'The painting represents Jerome (A.D. 347–420), ...The scene is based on the story of his later life, which he spent as a hermit in the desert, .... Reclining before Jerome is the tame lion, his companion in the desert and a central figure in the story of Jerome’s life....

'In its unfinished state, the painting shows us that Leonardo did not proceed in a wholly disciplined way. He was particularly interested in creating a detailed, anatomically correct under drawing for the saint’s ascetic body. The elegant silhouette of the reclining lion seems now especially powerful, because there is almost no modeling beyond the outlines. A close examination of the paint surface reveals the presence of Leonardo’s fingerprints, especially in the upper-left portion of the composition. Leonardo used his fingers to distribute the pigments and create a soft-focus effect in the sky and landscape.

'Leonardo was painfully slow at painting, which is one of the reasons his oeuvre is so miniscule. He started this panel around 1483 when he was in Milan. When he died in Amboise, France, in 1519, it was still far from finished. '

The article concludes:

'We don’t know who commissioned ..."St. Jerome Praying in the Wilderness" or why Leonardo kept altering it and working on it nigh onto 40 years.'