The Vision of St Jerome

The Vision of Saint Jerome, painted in 1594 and now in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, treats one of the most dramatically appealing subjects in the Christian devotional repertoire — the aging hermit Jerome transfixed by a celestial trumpet calling him to judgment. The subject, drawn from Jerome's own autobiographical account of a dream in which he was accused before God's tribunal of being a Ciceronian rather than a Christian, became increasingly popular in Counter-Reformation Europe as an image of scholarly piety chastened by divine judgment. Ludovico's version belongs to his peak mature period of 1593–95, alongside the Saint Hyacinth and Saint Catherine paintings, suggesting an intense focus on the visionary saints during these years.

Jerome's aged, emaciated body — a favourite Baroque subject for anatomical naturalism — would be rendered by Ludovico with the controlled naturalism of the Bolognese tradition, neither as brutal as Ribera's treatments nor as idealised as later Neoclassical images. The celestial trumpet and heavenly zone above contrast with the dark, rocky hermitage below. Paint handling in this mature work is assured and economical.