A St. Jerome from the Ancient Times

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

It is a painted terracotta 72 cm high. Thermoluminescence tests show that it has been fired several centuries ago, but the base is later.

It shows Saint Jerome at mid-length. The very realistic attitude shows the saint gazing to the heavens, and does not give him the intelligent look normally earned by one of the top Doctors of the Church. The beard is spectacular.

We are in the mid Italian Renaissance, probably in Padua circa 1475, some twenty years after Donatello had left the city. Two names stand out about that time, Andrea Riccio and Giovanni de Fondulis, and our statue is regarded as a work of the latter.

Donatello's shadow is a definite asset in the auctions. On 24 January 2008 at Sotheby's in New York, a superb gilt terracotta of the master showing the Madonna and Child sold $ 5.6 million including expenses. She was also represented at mid-length.

Our Saint Jerome is to sell at the same auction house on January 30, an estimated 800 K $.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

A technique folowing Donatello is not a Donatello. Unsold.