St. Jerome

The relief shows St. Jerome as a penitent hermit in three-quarter length. Clad only in a single cloth that leaves his right shoulder uncovered, he is holding a book in his left hand and in his right a stone with which to beat his breast. Writing materials are hanging from a tree. The relief, which was coated at a later date with a varnish of pitch-like consistency, was crafted at the same time as three other medallions showing St. Anthony Abbot (collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein) as well as St. Sebastian and John the Baptist (both National Gallery of Art, Washington). It is possible that they were all placed in an altar setting. Their surfaces, which have an impressionistic quality and a delicate gradation of different spatial depths, show few traces of chasing.