執筆する聖ヒエロニムス

An old saint bends over his book in the half dark, translating the Bible. Caravaggio painted him in Malta while on the run after a killing, and in 1984 thieves cut the canvas from its frame.

The story behind the painting

Caravaggio arrived in Malta on 12 July 1607 after months in Naples, where he had sheltered with the Colonna family after killing a man in a brawl in Rome. Naples had brought him ten commissions in less than a year. Biographers such as Peter Robb and Helen Langdon suggest he left because he was still an outlaw, and his patrons had strong links with the Knights of Malta, whose order could protect him and help him seek a papal pardon. Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt wanted a leading painter at his court. The painting dates from 1607 or 1608.

What to look for

The coat of arms in the lower right corner belongs to Ippolito Malaspina, Prior of the Knights of Saint John in Naples. Malaspina was a relative by marriage of Caravaggio's patron Ottavio Costa, a friend of the Giustiniani brothers and a cousin of Giovanni Andrea Doria, who had sheltered the artist two years before. He may even have had himself shown as the saint. Look at Jerome at work: he was venerated as the translator of the Bible, and that is what he is doing here. Compare it with Caravaggio's earlier version of the subject in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.

Meaning and intent

The subject seems oddly peaceful for a knight whose purpose was to fight the Turks. Malaspina had come to Malta at the end of the Great Siege of 1565 and had been admiral of the papal fleet. But he was also a commissioner for the poor, orphans and widows, and the painting may have been meant to stress that side of his work and the asceticism of the order. For Caravaggio, it was a very important painting, a link to a powerful protector in his new refuge.

Legacy

In December 1984 the painting was stolen from St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta, the canvas cut out of its frame. Two years later, after many telephone negotiations between the thieves and Malta's Director of Museums, Fr Marius J. Zerafa, it was recovered, damaged, and restored before going back on view. Zerafa told the story in his book Caravaggio Diaries, and in 2021 the PBS series Secrets of the Dead covered it in The Caravaggio Heist. In 2022 the Central Bank of Malta issued two coins showing part of the painting.