Spanish or Italian school; 17th century. "Penitent Saint Jerome". Oil on canvas. Re-drawn. It presents restorations. It conserves an old frame redecorated and polychromed in the 20th century. Measurements: 102 x 81 cm; 125 x 105 cm (frame). In this work the painter offers us an image charged with mystical emotion, very typical of Spanish Counter-Reformation art. Thus, we see a work with a clear and concise composition, with the saint portrayed almost full-length in the foreground, highlighted by the direct lighting, in the Tenebrist tradition, against a background of dark tones, although with a greater warmth that can be seen in the tones of the body and the red tunic that envelops the lower part of the body. As was also common at this time in the Spanish school, Saint Jerome is shown holding the cross with the figure of Christ. Alongside the saint can be seen other iconographic attributes that define the figure of Saint Jerome, such as the skull and also the writings that define him as the first translator of the Bible. Baroque painting is one of the most authentic and personal examples of art, because its conception and form of expression arose from the people and their deepest feelings. With the economy of the state in ruins, the nobility in decline and the clergy heavily taxed, it was the monasteries, parishes and confraternities of clerics and laymen who encouraged its development, with the works sometimes being financed by popular subscription. Painting was thus obliged to express the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when Counter-Reformation doctrine demanded a realistic language from art so that the faithful could understand and identify with what was depicted, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content to increase the fervour and devotion of the people. Religious themes were therefore the main subject matter of Spanish painting of this period, which in the early decades of the century focused primarily on capturing the natural world and gradually intensified throughout the century on expressive values through movement and a variety of gestures, the use of light resources and the depiction of moods and feelings. One of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church, Saint Jerome was born near Aquileia (Italy) in the year 347. 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.