San Girolamo nello studio

Durer cut this into a copper plate in 1514, one of three prints he made in these years that were so far ahead of anything else in engraving that they are simply called his master prints. Saint Jerome, the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin, sits deep in a snug wood-panelled study, writing in perfect peace. His lion and his little dog doze in the foreground. What everyone marvelled at was the light: sunshine pours through the thick bottle-glass windows and lays warm patches on the wall, all of it built from tiny engraved lines. Vasari, writing not long after, said nothing better could be done in the medium. A skull and an hourglass sit nearby, quiet reminders of passing time.