Spanish school; 17th century. "Saint Jerome in his study". Oil on canvas. It presents extensions and repainting. Measurements: 52 x 66 cm. In this work the painter offers us an image full of mystic emotion, very typical of the Spanish counter-reformist art. Thus, we see a work with a clear and concise composition, with the half-length saint in the foreground, highlighted by the direct, tenebrist lighting, on a neutral and dark background. As was also common at this time in the Spanish school, Saint Jerome appears writing and meditating next to a human skull, which in this case he even touches, making the symbolism of the transience of the material even more present. Alongside the saint, other iconographic attributes can be seen that define the figure of Saint Jerome, firstly the lion that has accompanied him since he removed the thorn from the silver. There is also a trumpet that alludes to the iconography of Saint Jerome and the angel. In the second half of the 16th century a new iconography appeared in which the saint listens to the trumpet of the Apocalypse, an iconography widely used by the Counter-Reformation Church. One of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church, Saint Jerome was born near Aquileia (Italy) in 347. Trained in Rome, he was an accomplished rhetorician and polyglot. Baptised at the age of nineteen, between 375 and 378 he withdrew to the Syrian desert to lead an anchorite's life. He returned to Rome in 382 and became a collaborator of Pope Damasus. One of the most frequent representations of this saint is his penance in the desert. His attributes are the stone he uses to beat his chest and the skull on which he meditates. Also the cardinal's cape (or a red mantle), although he was never a cardinal, and the tamed lion. The latter comes from a story in the "Golden Legend", where it is narrated that one day, when he was explaining the Bible to the monks in his convent, he saw a lion limping towards him. He removed the thorn from its paw, and from then on kept it in his service, instructing it to look after his donkey while it grazed. Some merchants stole the donkey, and the lion recovered it, returning it to the saint without hurting the animal. Dimensions 52 x 66 cm.