Photo of the Day

Saint Jerome in His Study

Wednesday 30 September 2026

It's International Translation Day, the feast of St Jerome.

Engraving of St Jerome writing at a desk in a sunlit, wood-beamed study, a skull on the window seat and a lion and dog asleep in front — Engraving · 1514

Albrecht Dürer's 1514 engraving of St Jerome at work in a sunlit study, with a lion dozing in the foreground. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, which is why translators mark his feast day, 30 September, as their own.

Fun facts

It is one of Dürer's three "master engravings" of 1513–14, with Knight, Death and the Devil and Melencolia I. source ↗
The lion refers to the legend that Jerome pulled a thorn from a lion's paw, after which it stayed with him. source ↗
The skull on the windowsill and the hourglass on the wall are reminders that time is running out. source ↗
Dürer's monogram, the AD in the bottom corner, was so famous that in 1506 he complained to the Venetian authorities about Marcantonio Raimondi copying his prints, monogram and all; the ruling protected the monogram but not the pictures. source ↗

Image: Albrecht Dürer · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Licence: CC0
Source: Wikimedia Commons The Met (Open Access)