Description

This anonymous Venetian painting, depicting a penitent Saint Jerome, can perhaps be ascribed to the XVI century, but there is no information about the artist. The warm tones and the essential construction of the composition make the intensity with which the Saint devotes himself to meditation and prayer even more evident. He is easily recognisable through his most typical attributes: the lion that barely emerges from the cave behind the Saint, the desert setting, the cross, and the sacred texts. It should be noted that St. Jerome holds a stone in one hand with which he beats his chest to avoid yielding to earthly temptations; with the other hand, he clutches a skull – another significant attribute of the Saint – a symbol of the ineluctability of death.