San Girolamo

Bosch painted this around the turn of the 16th century, and he takes a very familiar subject and makes it strange. Saint Jerome, the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin, was usually shown kneeling as a hermit in the wilderness, beating his chest with a stone. Bosch lays him flat instead, stretched out on the ground and clutching a crucifix, his eyes shut, as though he has collapsed into prayer. Around him the landscape curdles into odd rock formations, dead trees and murky pools, with strange shapes lurking at the edges the way they do across Bosch's work. His faithful lion is there too, smaller than usual and half hidden. Recent study of the panel showed Bosch painted the whole thing himself, without any workshop help.