This is one of four paintings made to decorate a pair of shutters. Each of the shutters had a saint on the outside and an angel on the inside. The central image they would once have flanked is now missing, but is likely to have represented the Virgin Mary crowned in the heavens.

Saint Jerome is depicted as one of the four Latin Doctors of the Church. His red habit and hat resemble those of a cardinal, which is anachronistic as cardinals did not exist during Jerome’s lifetime. Saint Jerome was a fourth-century priest, theologian and historian. He translated most of the Bible from Greek into Latin, known as the Vulgate. He also translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin and wrote commentaries on the Gospels.

Moretto had previously used the same figure of Saint Jerome in reverse in an altarpiece now in the Brera, Milan.