Saint Jerome

On 28 November 1527 a Brescian gentleman in Venice, Giovan Paolo Averoldi, made a small entry in his personal account book. He had paid Savoldo one gold scudo towards the cost of making a Saint Jerome. Nobody can prove this is the canvas he paid for, but the National Gallery thinks it may be, and it belongs to those years.

Jerome kneels on a rocky ledge before a crucifix, a stone ready in his hand to strike his chest in penance, and his arm pushes out towards us in steep foreshortening. An open book lies near the cross and another is wedged under his knees. Beyond him the land drops away to water and a dark city, and one of its churches may be Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. The lagoon was painted in azurite, a blue that has darkened with time, while a band of glowing light still runs along the horizon under the deep ultramarine sky.

On the rock below the open book the painter wrote that Giovanni Girolamo of Brescia, of the Savoldo family, made it. Girolamo is the Italian form of Jerome.