Saint Jerome, part of an altarpiece

This panel depicting Saint Jerome, part of a larger altarpiece painted by Donato de' Bardi around 1450 and now at the Brooklyn Museum, illustrates the continued centrality of Jerome as a devotional figure in the mid-fifteenth century. Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin and spent years as a hermit in the Syrian desert, was one of the most frequently depicted Church Fathers — an embodiment of scholarship, penance, and intellectual life devoted to God. De' Bardi renders him as an austere, dignified figure, reflecting the Ligurian painter's characteristic restraint and gravity.

Tempera on panel. The saint is presented in half-length format against a neutral ground, typical for altarpiece side panels. Modelling of the aging face is careful, attending to the texture of weathered skin and the intensity of spiritual focus.