Saint Jerome in his study

The study is the attribute

Jerome in his study is a subject in its own right, distinct from Jerome in the wilderness. The room does the identifying: books, a desk, papers, a skull, a candle, a crucifix — the equipment of a man remembered for translating scripture into Latin. The title recorded here names that setting directly. Where a dragon or a wheel names a saint by pointing to how they died, this attribute names Jerome by pointing to what he did all day.

What the record holds

The entry dates the panel to 1541 and gives the Museo del Prado in Madrid as its location. No dimensions are recorded. It is filed under male portraiture and religious cultural heritage, with Dutch given as the nationality; the measured colour family is red, the colour convention associated with Jerome's cardinal's costume.

A subject repeated on purpose

This collection holds several Jeromes, and they are not interchangeable. One is named by his lion, another by his pen, this one by his desk and the objects on it. That variety is a feature of how saintly attributes work: a saint with more than one sign gives painters more than one picture to make, and each choice produces a different kind of image from the same name.