I'm forever on the hunt for 19th c. Spanish colonial retablo paintings, which everyone else seems to be too as prices on them get higher and higher. I was very happy to find this one, of St. Jerome in his old age, with skull and cross to his left and fabulous little yellow lion to his right, looking quite a bit like Casper the ghost but in lion form! With plenty of wear and some surface rusting, which make the painting appear all the more like a vision. I believe the brown behind is meant to represent a cave, but I love how it looks like a cloud of smoke, perfect in combination with the red of his cloak and yellow of the lion.
St. Jerome--Jerome of Stridon (c. 342–420)--was an early Christian priest, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian. He is often depicted with a lion, in reference to the popular belief that Jerome had tamed a lion in the wilderness by healing its paw., and a skull (vanitas) as a reflection on the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits.Writing materials and the trumpet of final judgmentare also part of his iconography.
10" x 14". Aged and worn, all to the good I think. Lies flat (no major bends) on good weight tin.
