Recognising saints: lion

Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin from Greek and Hebrew, is reading in his study, surrounded by books, an inkwell, an unlit candle and Crucifix. A lion, his traditional companion, lies on the ground near his creased slippers. The partridge may be associated with both truth and de...

This small picture shows two episodes from the life of Saint Jerome. At the front, the saint sits under a lean-to shelter and removes a large thorn from a lion’s paw. In gratitude the lion remained with him in the wilderness and after he went back to monastic life. On a rocky platform behind, the...

An old man with a long white beard kneels in a rocky landscape. He gazes up at a rough wooden cross made from two slender branches roped together. This is Jerome, a fourth-century saint. It’s one of a number of versions of the subject made by Cima da Conegliano.The painting is arranged to focus o...

An elderly but muscular man with an impressive beard sits in a rocky landscape. Beside him is a pile of books, on top of which sits a skull wearing a cardinal’s hat. He leans on a second pile, and points to the text of an open volume resting on a rocky ledge. This is the fourth-century scholar an...

This painting is part of Romanino’s high altarpiece for S. Alessandro in Brescia. It is situated to the right of the main panel of the Nativity and shows the theologian, priest and historian, Saint Jerome (347–420), who lived in Constantinople and Rome.Saint Jerome holds a crucifix and beats his...

An elderly man, barefoot and with an impressive grey beard, is perched on a rock, engrossed in a book. This is Saint Jerome, translator of the Bible into Latin. His only companion is an endearing lion which lies peaceably in the corner – he had tamed it by removing a thorn from its paw.Bellini pa...

This bearded cardinal once stood at the left side of a small altarpiece that Crivelli painted for a side chapel in the church of San Domenico, in Ascoli Piceno in the Italian Marche. This is Saint Jerome, one of the Fathers of the Church and a favourite saint of the Dominican Order as a defender...

This small double-sided painting was most probably made for private worship. The front shows Saint Jerome kneeling in front of a crucifix wedged into the stump of a tree. He beats his chest with a rock in empathy with Christ’s Passion (his torture and death at the Crucifixion). The lion resting b...

Saint Jerome sits in the wilderness, carefully removing a thorn from the paw of a very endearing lion – it went on to be his companion. This was a popular subject in medieval art, although Jerome is usually just shown with the lion as a pet, rather than actually treating it.This is one of five sc...

This is the main panel of the S. Gerolamo Altarpiece, one of the most important works of the Florentine painter Francesco Botticini. It is named after Saint Jerome (Gerolamo or Girolamo in Italian), the figure prominently depicted at its centre, and the church dedicated to him where it originally...

An elderly man kneels in landscape, beating his sunken and bleeding chest with a stone. He gazes up at a Crucifix attached to a tree, on which hangs a painted figure of Christ. This is Saint Jerome, hermit and translator of the Bible. His cardinal’s robes and hat lie discarded behind him.The rock...