In this series, Index asks our colleagues “What is your favorite work of art in our collections and why?” This is a tall order, given that we have about 250,000 works in our collections. At a recent weekly coffee hour, our intrepid reporters posed the challenging question to unsuspecting staff. Click here to see other responses in this series.

Dina Anchin, Paintings Conservation Fellow

“The Joos van Cleve painting that’s in the labs that I’ve been working on—Saint Jerome in His Study.”

Why that painting?

“I’ve spent eight months, or longer, working on it. It’s exquisite in detail and so well painted. Van Cleve is able to create all of these different materials with paint and make it lifelike and real. He cares so much about light and how it effects every object and its reflections; how every object talks to one another in terms of light. That’s what you get for staring at something for such a long time!”