Virgin Mary and Child with Saints Jerome and Anthony Abbot and a Donor

Paris Bordone's Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Anthony Abbot belongs to his production of sacred conversations for Venetian and mainland patrons who desired altarpieces combining traditional iconography with the warm Venetian aesthetic he had developed. Jerome and Anthony Abbot, both desert fathers who renounced worldly life for contemplation, made appropriate companions for a devotional altarpiece image, asserting the value of contemplative withdrawal. Bordone's characteristic warm light and rich color give the sacred gathering a sensuous beauty consistent with the Venetian tradition his master Titian had made the dominant European aesthetic.

The devotional composition is rendered with attention to the expressive and contemplative qualities that served the painting's function as an aid to prayer and meditation.