There are remainders of paint to the terracotta along with standard chips, losses, and minor restoration throughout. There is loss and repair to a small crack on the upper left hand and lower right hand corners. His proper right arm has a repaired break and some restoration to that hand. There is a horizontal break through the top third of rock work (expertly repaired). The saint's drapery also has some repair to the edges. Beautifully modelled This lot is sold with a copy of the Thermoluminescence Test from Oxford Authentication dated 5 December 2016 indicating that sample N116q77, taken on November 22, 2016, that this sculpture was last fired between 400 and 700 years ago and is therefore consistent with the suggested period of manufacture.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

St. Jerome became extremely popular in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, in part because of the retelling of his story in the Golden Legend and the availability of his writings throughout Europe (Warren, op. cit., p. 483). Many of the most important fifteenth century images of the Saint came from Florence, and two episodes from his life were generally depicted: his contemplative state reading in his study and his penitence in the desert. The present sculpture illustrates the latter scene, a moment of self-abnegation described in the famous letter 22 of his collective letters.

A group of terracotta sculptures depicting the Saint in the desert has long been studied by scholars who have suggested a variety of attributions including Baccio da Montelupo and Jacopo Sansovino. In his catalogue of the sculpture in the Ashmoleoan Museum, Warren (op. cit.) summarizes decades of research on these compositions and highlights Gentilini’s concept of two distinct groups of the Jerome sculptures: the first group ascribed to Jacopo Sansovino and the second group ascribed to Baccio da Montelupo. The present lot appears to belong to the second group, sharing distinguishing characteristics including vigorous modeꩲlling of the Saint’s features, a luxuriant beard, a specific type of lion and a rocky landscape. Also characterized by the existence of a lizard amidst the rocky outcropping, this group of sculptures has strong affinities with the work of Baccio da Montelupo who studied with other young sculptors including Michelangelo, Giovanni Francesco Rustici, and Jacopo Sansovino. Other variants of the composition from Gentilini’s second group of terracottas exist in the Bode Museum, Berlin and the Horne Museum, Florence.

Baccio received his first important commission, a series of terracotta statues circa 1495, from the friars of the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna. However, his most prestigious commission came in 1514 from a competition sponsored by the Florence silk merchants’ guild to create a statue in bronze for one of the remaining empty niches on the facade of Orsanmichele. Baccio's bronze St. John the Evangelist took its place on the exꦗterior of Orsanmichele beside works by Italian notables of the preceding century: Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Nanni di Banco.

RELATED LITERATURE
F. Schottmüller, Bildwerke des Kaiser Friedrich-Museums, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 1933, no. 171, pp. 146-147
G. Gentilini, La civiltà del cotto: arte della terracotta nell'area fiorentina dal XV al XX secolo, exh. cat., May - October 1980, no. 2.7, pp. 96-97
E. N. Lausanna, I Museo Bardini le sculture medievali e rinascimentali, Florence, 1989, cat. nos. 217-218, pp. 266- 267, cat. no. 280, p. 284
M. Bormand, “Un Saint Jerome florentin autour de 1500,” in La sculpture en Occident, études offertes à Jean René Gaborit, Dijon, 2007, pp. 123-128
J. Warren, “St Jerome in Penitence,” in Medieval and Renaissance sculpture: a catalogue of the collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Sculptures in stone, clay, ivory, bone and wood, vol. 2, Oxford, 2014, pp. 482-487