Saint Jerome

El Greco died in Toledo in 1614 and this canvas was still unfinished in his workshop. Parts of it are blocked in and left that way, which is probably why an inventory drawn up in 1786 put it at only 600 reales, a low figure for a picture this size by a known name.

The subject was what Spanish patrons wanted. After the Council of Trent the church pressed for saints shown doing penance, and Jerome kneels here in a rocky wilderness in front of a crucifix, holding the stone he used to beat his own chest. He was the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin, and the penance was for having loved pagan books too much.

Toledo had lost the court to Madrid 50 years earlier and was shrinking, and El Greco went on running a large workshop there for its churches and hospitals to the end.