St. Jerome and the Angel of Judgment

Ribera's Saint Jerome and the Angel of Judgment from 1626, now in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, depicts the Church Father in his characteristic desert setting interrupted by the sound of the Last Trumpet — an episode from Jerome's autobiographical letters where he described the terrifying vision that accompanied his desert penance. The angel sounding the trumpet of Judgment against the sky above Jerome's rocky hermitage was one of the most dramatically charged subjects in the saint's iconography, combining personal confession with cosmic eschatological drama. Ribera renders Jerome with the aged physical intensity that characterized his treatment of aged male figures — the lean body, the dramatic white hair, the face of sustained intellectual and physical effort.

The dramatic chiaroscuro illuminates the emaciated figure of Jerome and the hovering angel against deep darkness. Ribera's rendering of Jerome's aged, ascetic body demonstrates his renowned ability to depict the physical effects of extreme fasting and penance.