Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; XVII century.
"St. Jerome penitent".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has frame of the eighteenth century.
Measurements: 120 x 98 cm; 136 x 114 cm (frame).
The present work, an oil on canvas painted in Italy in the early seventeenth century, is a significant example of the spread of naturalistic and dramatic language associated with the environment of Caravaggio and its impact on Neapolitan painting. It is also close to the circle of José de Ribera and, therefore, within the context of tenebrism, a trend characterized by the extreme use of chiaroscuro and by an intense, almost tangible representation of reality. In this sense, the painting reveals a clear stylistic and compositional influence of the famous St. Jerome writing by Caravaggio, preserved in the Co-cathedral of St. John, especially in the arrangement of the saint, the economy of elements and the focus of light on the main figure.
The scene presents Saint Jerome in his study, immersed in his intellectual work, with a light treatment that models the body and accentuates its sculptural corporeality. The light, directed and violent, emerges from the surrounding darkness to define volumes and emphasize the physical and psychological features of the saint, in full consonance with the tenebrist postulates. This resource not only intensifies the dramatic charge of the scene, but also places the viewer before a profoundly introspective visual experience.
From the iconographic point of view, the work incorporates the traditional attributes of the saint: the skull, symbol of the memento mori, and the voluminous book that alludes to his status as Doctor of the Church and translator of the Bible into Latin. Overall, this painting not only illustrates a theme of great relevance within the Christian tradition, the figure of the ascetic scholar devoted to study and meditation, but also stands as a testimony to the survival and reinterpretation of the Caravaggio model in the Neapolitan environment.