Saint Jerome meditating

In 1865 this canvas hung in the Museo de la Trinidad in Madrid, catalogued with the Spanish school beside the Madrid painter Antonio de Pereda and described as being in his manner. The Trinidad held pictures taken from religious houses closed in the 1830s, and this one had come from the convent of the Calced Carmelites in Toledo. Its inventory called it a Saint Jerome, more than half-length and life-size, with a Christ in one hand and a stone in the other, the canvas relined and restored and without a frame. In 1872 the Trinidad's collection went to the Prado, and the picture with it. The museum now gives it to Paolo Veronese and his workshop, around 1585, within three years of the painter's death. The colour is held down and the anecdotal detail is gone, so that nothing stands between the viewer and the saint's meditation. The 1865 description named what is still in front of you, a red mantle over the left shoulder and a crucifix held in both hands.