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davinciworkspaintingsstjerome.jpg

St. Jerome in the Wilderness

An old man sits in a dark and rocky dessert. He motions to his chest, pulling back his robe and grasps something in his other hand. He is kneeling down before a lion. 

St. Jerome in the Wilderness

  • Tempera and oil on walnut panel
  • 103 × 75 cm, 41 × 30 in
  • Vatican Museums


This unfinished painting depicts Saint Jerome after he has plucked the thorn from the Lions paw. Noteworthy is Leonardo not giving him a beard as was customary. 

"The painting depicts Saint Jerome during his retreat to the Syrian desert, where he lived the life of a hermit. St Jerome kneels in a rocky landscape, gazing toward a crucifix which can be discerned faintly sketched in at the extreme right of the painting. In Jerome's right hand he holds a rock with which he is traditionally shown beating his chest in penance. At his feet is the lion which became a loyal companion after he extracted a thorn from its paw. The lion, the stone and a cardinal's hat are the traditional attributes of the saint.


On the left-hand side of the panel the background is a distant landscape of a lake surrounded by precipitous mountains shrouded in mist. To the right-hand side, the only discernible feature is a faintly-sketched church, seen through the opening in the rocks. The church's presence may allude to Jerome's position in Western Christianity as one of the Doctors of the Church.


The composition of the painting is innovative for the oblique trapezoid form of the figure of the saint. The angular forms contrast with the sinuous form of the lion which transcribes an "S" across the bottom of the painting. The form of St Jerome prefigures that of the Virgin Mary in the Virgin of the Rocks. The anatomy of the saint relates to a page of anatomical drawings of the shoulder girdle." - Wikipedia