The Last Communion of Saint Jerome

This painting in the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre is recorded as The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, one of Domenichino's most celebrated compositions. The original masterpiece, painted in 1614 for the church of San Girolamo della Carità in Rome, is now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana and was considered one of the greatest paintings in Rome for two centuries. The listed date of 1823 suggests this Glasgow version is a copy — the composition was so admired that it was frequently copied by later artists, including a famous version by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

The composition follows Domenichino's celebrated design, with the dying Jerome receiving his final communion surrounded by attendant clergy and weeping followers. The classical arrangement of figures in a shallow architectural space demonstrates the clear, measured compositional approach that made the original a touchstone of Baroque classicism.