The Golden Cabinet presents:
Exhibition
From Patinir to Ribera
St Jerome in Words and Images
18 January 2014 to 13 April 2014
Nicolaas Rockox (1560-1640), burgomaster, world citizen and humanist
During the first half of the seventeenth century, Nicolaas Rockox played a very important role in
the public life of Antwerp. He occupied several positions of responsibility, among them as
alderman and burgomaster; in the latter capacity, he maintained direct contact with the Spanish
royal house. There were international connections in his private life, too, particularly through his
marriage to Adriana Perez, scion of an old and wealthy, merchant family of Spanish origin: the
couple remained childless.
Rockox’s political, artistic and social influence was felt particularly during the period in the history
of the Low Countries between the Fall of Antwerp (1585), which resulted in the closure of the
Scheldt, and the Peace of Munster (1648), which marked the final separation of the Northern and
Southern Low Countries.
The busy correspondence that Rockox conducted with his contemporaries indicates that he was a
world citizen. He maintained many-facetted contacts with the French humanist Claude Fabri de
Peiresc (1580-1637), the jurist Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), the humanist Justus Lipsius (15471606), the cartographer Ortelius (1527-1598), the philologist Gaspard Gevartius (1593-1666) and
many others. He was likewise well-read, possessed a richly filled library and found fascination in
numerous subjects.
Rockox also had an exceptional reputation as a patron, antiquarian, numismatist and humanist,
and was partly instrumental in the successful career enjoyed by Rubens (1577-1640),
commissioning major works from this great master of the Baroque during the second decade of the
seventeenth century. The inventory of the contents of Rockox’s house, drawn up on his death,
reflects his interest in the cultural life of his city and indeed reveals that he possessed eighty-two
paintings by the major artists of the time.
The memory of this significant figure is kept very much alive today in the Rockox House Museum,
which is housed in the former patrician residence that he lived in as burgomaster of Antwerp. KBC
had the house restored during the 1970s and it has been open to the public since 1977. Although
its entire contents were sold for the benefit of the poor, shortly after Rockox’s death, the inventory
represents an important guide for further research into the Rockox House. Of his collection of
paintings, just one remains today in the museum’s collection: the St Jerome by Jan van Hemessen
(1500-ca.1566).
The St Jerome in Rockox’s collection
Rockox’s collection of paintings was a reflection of what was contemporary art in the seventeenth
century, albeit with a few exceptions that he must have bought for other reasons,such as the
painting of St Jerome by Jan van Hemessen. What was this painting’s significance for Rockox –
the fact, perhaps, that St Jerome was regarded as the patron saint of humanism, as a symbol of
contemplation? Whatever the truth of the matter, it occupied a place of honour in his art gallery or
groote saleth, where the famous work by P.P. Rubens, Samson en Delila, had a deserved place.
In that same room, Rockox also had two portraits of contemporary humanists, Justus Lipsius and
Abraham Ortelius. Lipsius was one of the humanists who gave form to contemplation, and Rockox
had every book that he had published.
The St Jerome by Jan van Hemessen is currently the only work from Rockox’s original collection
that is now present – hanging in situ, as it were – in the Rockox House Museum.
The concept of the exhibition
The figure of St Jerome is presented on the basis of the pictorial art of the Renaissance and the
Baroque. St Jerome was the subject of thirty per cent of all portrayals of saints during the sixteenth
century and he remained of great significance in the pictorial art of the seventeenth century, too,
being an iconic figure in the Counter-Reformation and in humanism.
Jerome was born around 340 at Stridon. Following his studies at Rome, Trier and Aquileia, he
travelled in 373 to the Holy Land where he lived as a hermit in the desert of Chalchis until 379, the
year he was ordained priest. In 382, he returned to Rome at the invitation of Pope Damasus,
becoming his adviser, which is why Jerome was erroneously regarded as a cardinal during the
Middle Ages. In 385, he travelled to Palestine and Egypt, ultimately settling at Bethlehem, where
he founded a monastery and a school, and devoted himself to translating the Bible.
Jerome translated the Bible into vernacular Latin (the Vulgate) and deliberately not into
grandiloquent Ciceronian Latin. For centuries, this was the only translation of the Old Testament
from the original Hebrew. In addition, he also made translations of the writings of the Greek Church
Fathers, among them Origen (ca. 185-253/4). Jerome also succeeded in reconciling the
philosophy of the Ancient Greek and Roman world with the body of Christian thought, a matter
refocused on during the Renaissance via neo-Platonism. It was in this way that he became an icon
for such sixteenth-century humanists as Erasmus, who modelled himself on and identified with
him.
Jerome was portrayed chiefly as a cardinal, as an exegete, as a translator of the Bible and as a
hermit. For many artists, depicting his erudition and tenaciousness was a challenge. The concept
of Melancholy also had significance in the figure of Jerome. In the Renaissance, Melancholy was a
condition for being creative, for being able to develop a hunger for knowledge.
Because of his work as a translator, Jerome was often portrayed in his study and became the
prototype of the scholar. Various portraits of humanists are based on such depictions.
Jerome’s existence as a hermit is representative of meditation, as well as of isolation and
alienation, modern terms that belong to the manifestation of the human being as an individual, an
aspect that differentiates the Renaissance from the Middle Ages. In the art of the Renaissance, the
depiction of the desert where Jerome remained for a number of years had often to make way for
one of an idyllic garden. During the Renaissance, indeed, the landscape and the garden were
developed into an independent genre in pictorial art and were regularly employed as decor for
Jerome as hermit.
Lastly, Jerome is a saint who also has the gift of healing. It is recounted, for example, that he
tamed an injured lion to such an extent that it followed him around as faithfully as a domestic pet;
the story is no doubt one of the legends that attached to him, but it explains why the lion is often
depicted as an attribute of the saint.
Curators:
Xavier Tricot, art historian, authority on Ensor, curator of several exhibitions and also painter, poet
and playwright.
Hildegard Van de Velde, art historian, administrator of KBC’s art collection and curator of the
Rockox House Museum in Antwerp.
PRACTICAL DETAILS
18 January to 13 April 2014
Rockox House Museum
Keizerstraat 12
B-2000 Antwerp
Tel. + 32 3 201 92 50
Fax + 32 3 201 92 51
www.rockoxhuis.be
Open: Tuesday to Sunday: from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed: Monday
ENTRANCE
6 euros, 4 euros and gratis
GUIDED TOURS
For groups of maximum 20 persons. A guided tour lasts 1.5 hours and costs 75 euros (50 euros for
school classes).
Information and reservations: Tel. + 32 3 224 95 61 Fax + 32 3 248 08 10
[email protected]
VISITORS’ GUIDE
Dutch/English Visitors’ Guide available gratis at the counter. From 18 January, it can also be
downloaded from www.kmska.be.
APP for Ipad
An app has been developed for this exhibition.
DOWNLOAD THE PRESS FILE AND HIGH DEFINITION IMAGES:
www.kmska.be
www.rockoxhuis.be
Click in the bar above ‘Press’.
Then click left for the press release or high definition photographs.
User name: press Password: kmska
User name: pers Password: rockox
For more information:
KMSKA
Véronique Van Passel
[email protected]
Tel. + 32 3 224 95 68
Mob. + 32 485 49 31 27
www.kmska.be
ROCKOX HOUSE MUSEUM
Hildegard Van de Velde
[email protected]
Tel. + 32 3 201 92 71
Mob. + 32 499 96 53 34
www.rockoxhuis.be