Saint Jerome in the Wilderness

Even as northern Protestants were making Jerome their own, Counter-Reformation artists were exploiting the hermit's story to make an appeal for the Catholic faith. With characteristic naturalism, Carracci endowed Jerome with an intensity of feeling that makes his communion with God palpable. Carricci's expressive style invites beholders to enter Jerome's world, emulate his ecstatic spirituality, and ultimately glimpse the divine themselves.