Büßender hl. Hieronymus

Around 1500 Perugino was one of the most sought-after painters in Italy, running two busy workshops at once in Florence and Perugia, with a young Raphael in his orbit. This small panel shows both his gift and his habit in one breath. The subject is Saint Jerome doing harsh penance alone in the wilderness, kneeling before a crucifix with the stone he beat his chest with. Yet Perugino cannot bring himself to paint a real desert. Behind the saint spreads a calm lake fringed with soft green trees and slender saplings, an idealised Umbrian valley closer to paradise than to any place of suffering. Around Jerome lie his usual attributes, the lion he was said to have tamed, the red cardinal's hat, the stone for his chest, each drawn from a different telling of his life.