St. Jerome (342-420) is shown holding his translation of the Bible with a landscape background which is alluding to his sojourn in the wilderness of Chalcis. He isolated himself there in order to study the Hebrew texts of the Holy Scriptures, before translating them into Latin.  This translation became known as the Vulgate, which was eventually adopted as the Roman Catholic Church’s official Bible text at the Council of Trent in the 1560s. The Saint is also shown wearing the traditional Cardinal’s red robe even though he never became a Cardinal, as the office did not exist in his lifetime. This version of the composition has usually been attributed to Palma Vecchio although the similar painting in the Galleria Sabauda at Turin has long been associated with Girolamo da Santa Croce (c.1480/5-c.1556).

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