Saint Jerome in the Desert

In the Thebaid desert, which surrounds the saint in meditation, there is a singular animalistic exhibition, which competes with those of local and Lombard painters, specialists in the genre. The horizon is still a Gothic curtain of rocks, but the castle on the mountain and the stylite on the column already prepare the humanistic repertoire of backgrounds by Andrea Mantegna, Jacopo's son-in-law. The frame of the painting is from the 19th century.