Saint Jerome Writing, c.1604/06 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Saint Jerome Writing is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

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The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

In Caravaggio’s "Saint Jerome Writing," we find a stark and intimate portrait of faith intertwined with mortality. The scene is almost austere: Saint Jerome sits at a rough wooden table, his lean, aged body cloaked in a rich red that spills across the composition. Caravaggio’s mastery of chiaroscuro is on full display here, the saint’s bare shoulder catching the light while the shadows cling to his gaunt face. His posture is hunched, absorbed, his gaze locked on the open tome in front of him as he dips his pen, ready to write, embodying both the scholar and the saint.

Beside him rests a skull, an unmistakable reminder of death that counterbalances the saint’s own head. It is a chilling echo, almost as if Jerome, deeply engaged in his work, is in conversation with his inevitable fate. The two heads form a visual dialogue across the canvas - one living, one lifeless - both rendered with meticulous realism. Caravaggio treats each fold of skin, each ridge of bone, with a precision that brings Jerome’s frailty into sharp focus. There is no excess here, no ornamental detail to distract from the stark confrontation with mortality.

The colors are subdued, save for the red of Jerome’s cloak, which dominates the painting. It is a color of passion, of sacrifice, and it envelops him, contrasting with the pale pages of the Bible he translates. Caravaggio’s brushwork is deliberate and restrained, each stroke accentuating the textures of fabric, parchment, and flesh. The skull, gleaming against the dark backdrop, is painted with a kind of reverence - a memento mori that reminds us of the transient nature of life, even as Jerome pens the words of God.

This composition is balanced yet tense, as the saint’s outstretched arm reaches for the inkwell across the table, a hand frozen mid-motion. Caravaggio has captured a fleeting moment, a pause in Jerome’s eternal labor. The harsh lighting underscores the sharp contours of his body, each shadow hinting at his physical decline. In "Saint Jerome Writing," Caravaggio offers us a powerful meditation on devotion and the inescapable reality of death, placing us face to face with a man who wrestles not just with words, but with the weight of his own existence. It is as if the saint is caught between two worlds - the earthly and the divine - a figure suspended in time, yet forever enduring through his words.