Saint Jerome 

This bronze plaquette of Saint Jerome was made in Italy by Ulocrino, sometime between the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It depicts Jerome, the Christian theologian, in the wilderness, accompanied by a lion. Jerome lived during a tumultuous period for the Church, and he dedicated his life to producing a definitive Latin translation of the Bible. But Jerome also came to represent the ascetic ideal. During the Renaissance, he served as a model for humanist scholars, who retreated from public life in order to dedicate themselves to learning. How can we interpret this image in its historical context? It would be helpful to know more about the market for such images at this time, and to consider other images of exemplary figures from both Christian and classical tradition. Only by piecing together the evidence can we fully understand the place of art within the culture that produced it.