Spanish School 17th century. "Penitent Saint Jerome". Oil on canvas. Without signature. Damaged. It needs restoration. Measurements: 130 x 96 cm, 145 x 111 cm (frame). In this canvas we see Saint Jerome during his penitence in the desert, in an open rocky environment in the central area and on the left side. The saint is shown with a red cloak over his shoulders and white cloths of modesty, kneeling, gazing at a crucifix, holding a stone in his right hand and a rosary in his left. In the area of his knees we see the lion typical of his iconography and, on the ground, the sacred book. One of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church, Saint Jerome was born near Aquileia (Italy) in 347. Trained in Rome, he was an accomplished rhetorician and polyglot. Baptised at the age of nineteen, between 375 and 378 he withdrew to the Syrian desert to lead an anchorite s life. He returned to Rome in 382 and became a collaborator of Pope Damasus. One of the most frequent representations of this saint is his penance in the desert. His attributes are the stone he uses to beat his chest and the skull on which he meditates. Also the cardinal s capelet (or a red mantle), although he was never a cardinal, and the tamed lion. The latter comes from a story in the "Golden Legend", where it is narrated that one day, when he was explaining the Bible to the monks in his convent, he saw a lion limping towards him. He removed the thorn from the lion s paw, and from then on he kept it in his service, instructing it to look after his donkey while he grazed. Some merchants stole the donkey, and the lion recovered it, returning it to the saint without hurting the animal.