22 March to 9 June 2013 Advance purchase is recommended
<exchanging gazes> 5: Interior Scenes. Women and Daily Life. New
Display of the Collections From 26 February to 10 June 2013
Saint Jerome in penitence is one of the episodes from the life
of a saint whom Ribera depicted on a number of occasions
throughout his career, as with the theme of the Pietà. The life
of Saint Jerome, one of the four Doctors of the Church, author
of the Vulgate and secretary to Pope Damasus who commissioned
him with the new Latin translation of the Bible, was
disseminated through The Golden Legend by Jacopo de Voragine,
along with the lives of numerous other saints and martyrs. The
figure of Saint Jerome, along with that of other contemplative
saints and female anchorites such as the Magdalen, was promoted
during the Counter-Reformation, which saw these spiritual
episodes as perfect examples of repentance and which also
fulfilled the requirement of moving the spectator to piety. One
of Ribera’s earliest known depictions of Saint Je