September 30 marks the Feast of St Jerome, and is the date of the his death in 420 AD. Jerome is a doctor and father of the church, and often placed beside Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose, and Pope Gregory I. He is the second most prolific writer in ancient Latin Christianity, following Augustine. Jerome is the author of the first Latin version of the Bible, also known as Vulgate, parts of which he translated from Greek and from Hebrew. In works of art, Jerome is most often portrayed as a scholar, as an ascetic and (anachronistically) in cardinal’s robes.
Domenichino: Last Communion of St Jerome, oil on canvas, 1614, Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana.
Antonio da Fabriano II: Saint Jerome in His Study, tempera, oil (?) and gold leaf on wood panel, 1451, Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum.
Domenico Ghirlandaio, St Jerome in His Study, tempera on panel, 1840, Chiesa degli Ognissanti, Florence.
Giovanni Bellini, St Jerome Reading in the Countryside, 1480-1485, tempera and oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Pier Francesco Sacchi, The First Doctors of the Church, tempera on panel, 1516, Musee du Louvre, Paris.
In this image the four Latin doctors are represented alongside copies of the four Gospels and the attributes of the Four Evangelists: St. Augustine with an eagle, St. Gregory the Great with a bull, St. Jerome with an angel, and St. Ambrose with a winged lion