17th century, penitent Saint Jerome

17th century
San Gerolamo penitente
Oil on canvas, 90 x 75 cm - with frame 100 x 86 cm

The canvas analyzed here, datable to the 17th century, depicts Saint Jerome, one of the four Fathers of the Western Church. Born in Stridone in 341 from a noble Christian family, he is known above all for the important translation from the Hebrew of the Old Testament, as well as other writings of a religious subject. For this reason, as was said, it is included among the four Fathers of the Western Church, together with Gregorio, Ambrogio and Agostino. From the iconographic point of view, there are traditionally two versions of the saint, which have had alternate diffusion over the centuries. A first sees him portrayed in a study, intent on reading a book, in homage to his work as author of sacred works. A second, on the other hand, focuses on the penitent aspect, since the saint spent a long period of ascetic life in the desert of Chalcis (353-358), where, according to tradition, he would have extracted a thorn from a lion's paw, depicted at the back of the Saint, whom he had met (for this reason the animal became faithful to him and accompanied him everywhere). The present painting is aligned to the second version, that of the penitent hermit, which appears to be the favorite during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Besides the ability to define the figure of the saint, characterized by great emotional and dramatic tension, the painter proves to be a skilled landscape artist, in the rendering of a rich landscape definition behind the figure of the penitent.