Spanish or Italian school; 17th century.

Spanish or Italian school; XVII century.
"Penitent St. Jerome".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 102 x 81 cm; 125 x 105 cm (frame).
In this work the painter offers us a mystical image, very typical of the Counter-Reformation art. Thus, we see a work of clear and concise composition, with the saint of half a body in the foreground, highlighted by direct lighting, on a neutral and dark background. As is also usual at this time within the school, St. Jerome appears during his period of penance in the desert, meditating next to a human skull, with a stone in one of his hands, the Cross and the Holy Scriptures.
One of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church, St. Jerome was born near Aquileia (Italy) in 347. Trained in Rome, he was an accomplished rhetorician and polyglot. Baptized at the age of nineteen, between 375 and 378 he retired to the Syrian desert to lead an anchorite's life. He returned to Rome in 382 and became a collaborator of Pope Damasus. One of the most frequent representations of this saint is his penance in the desert. His attributes are the stone he uses to beat his chest and the skull on which he meditates. Also the cardinal's cape (or a red mantle), although he was never a cardinal, and the tamed lion. The latter comes from a story of the "Golden Legend", where it is narrated that one day, when he was explaining the Bible to the monks of his convent, he saw a lion coming with a limp. He removed the thorn from its paw, and from then on he kept it in his service, instructing it to look after his donkey while it grazed. Some merchants stole the donkey, and the lion recovered it, returning it to the saint without hurting the animal.