St. Jerome in Penitence

Around 1531 Titian, by then the most sought-after painter in Venice, seems to have made this for Federico Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua who was one of his keenest patrons. It shows Saint Jerome as a hermit in the wilderness, kneeling half-naked before a small crucifix propped in the rocks, a stone in his hand to beat his own chest in penance. His usual companions are here: the tamed lion, the cardinal's red hat, the open book of the Latin Bible he was believed to have translated. What was new was the handling of light. Titian lets a low, raking glow pick out the saint and the crags while much of the landscape sinks into shadow, so the figure feels lost in a vast, darkening wild. It later hung in the collection of Louis XIV of France.