The Penitent St Jerome

Marco Zoppo trained under Squarcione in Padua, then moved between Venice and Bologna, absorbing Mantegna's influence while developing a rawer, more emotive personal style. His Penitent Saint Jerome from 1465 reflects the Paduan obsession with ancient sculpture — Jerome in the wilderness, beating his breast before a crucifix, posed as though carved from marble. Jerome was the patron saint of scholars and humanists, and Zoppo's clientele in the university city of Bologna included exactly the kind of learned men who identified with Jerome's combination of intellectual rigour and personal asceticism. The rocky wilderness setting, more barren and angular than the lush landscapes of contemporary Venetian painters, gives the composition its distinctive emotional austerity that sets Zoppo apart from his contemporaries.

Zoppo renders Jerome's emaciated body with sharp, almost brutal anatomical definition, the rib cage and clavicle described through tight contour lines. The rocky landscape is built from angular grey-brown forms that echo the sculptural quality of the figure. Colour is restrained: flesh tones, ochre earth, and deep red for the cardinal's hat that sits anachronistically in the wilderness setting.