Penitent Saint Jerome in the desert – Fondazione Perugia – Perugia
The work repeats a recurring scheme in the works of Perugino from the same subject, representing Saint Jerome as a hermit, kneeling in front of the Crucifix, in the act of hitting his chest with a stone while his iconographic attributes are next to him: the tamed lion and the cardinal’s headgear, thrown to the ground as a sign of renunciation of earthly glories. The work was probably originally conceived as a processional banner.
Saint Jerome is depicted as an elderly man with long hair and a thick white beard, recalling remarkable similarities with the Blessed Giacomo della Marca commissioned by the Compagnia di San Girolamo around 1512. The two works, in fact, realized in the last years of Vannucci’s activity, share “the immaterial consistency of the bodies and the landscape”, repeating themselves in paratactic compositional schemes.
The painting, now kept at the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia, was once placed at the sacristy of the church of Sant’Ercolano, then transferred to the halls of the Sodalizio di San Martino and finally deposited at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria.
The canvas, which suffered some falls of color, was extensively repainted by the painter Giuseppe Carattoli in the eighteenth century, when it was also equipped with a frame.
The work is preserved at the Fondazione Perugia.
