Translating the Bible; Saints Paula and Jerome.

Translating the Bible; Saints Paula and Jerome.

75 x 95 cms in white frame.

This willow-charcoal drawing explores art historical and Christian narrative in terms of
the sins of sexism and misogyny, (see Rosemary, Radford Reuther, Feminist
Theologian), by gently yet ironically appropriating the classical nude tradition, and
situating it within the art historical context of Contemporary Realism. As such it
presents a renewed engagement with our western heritage.
In the foreground the contemporized ‘Classical Nude’ a strong Female body as Saint
Paula engages with Her-story while the background depicts His-story or History...Saint
Jerome, based on a work in the National Gallery, Dublin, by Flemish artist William Keys.
This 16th century oil painting perpetuates the narrative of Jerome’s prowess as the
saintly Doctor of the Church, who settled in Palestine in the 4th century, was fluent in
many languages and translated the Bible to Latin/Vulgate.
Tradition and the visual arts fail to value Saint Paula; his educated patron, financial
provider and co-researcher of Biblical scholarship, who was a wealthy, independent
Roman widow and mother of five grown-up children. Tradition also avoids clarifying
the nature of their relationship. The lion accompanying Jerome usually indicates his
healing a suffering lion. In this work it has a dual purpose, symbolizing the
temperamentally angry Jerome whose research partner, the very patient Saint Paula
attempts to remain focused on her biblical research.