common subject, and styled "The Vision of St. Jerome." I have met with no example earlier than the fifteenth century. In general he is lying on the ground, and an angel sounds the trumpet from above. In a composition by Ribera he holds a pen in one hand and a penknife in the other: he seems to have been arrested in the very act of mending his pen by the blast of the trumpet: the figure of the saint, wasted even to skin and bone, and his look of petrified amazement, are very fine, notwithstanding the commonplace action. In a picture by Subleyras, in the Louvre, St. Jerome is gazing upwards, with an astonished look; three archangels sound their trumpets from above. In a picture by Antonio Pereda, at Madrid, St. Jerome not only hears in his vision the sound of the last trump, he sees the dead arise from their graves around him. Lastly, by way of climax, I may mention a picture in the Louvre, by a modern French painter, Sigalon : St. Jerome is in a convulsive fit, and the three angels, blowing their trumpets in his ears, are like furies sent to torment and madden the sinner, rather than to rouse the saint.

While doing penance in the desert, St. Jerome was sometimes haunted by temptations, as well as amazed by terrors.

4. Domenichino, in one of the frescoes in St. Onofrio, represents the particular kind of temptation by which the saint was in imagination assailed while he is fervently praying and beating his breast, a circle of beautiful nymphs, seen in the background, weave a graceful dance. Vasari has had the bad taste to give us a penitent St. Jerome with Venus and Cupids in the background: one arch little Cupid takes aim at him; an offensive instance of the extent to which, in the sixteenth century, classical ideas had mingled with and depraved Christian Art.1 5. Guido. "St. Jerome translating the Scriptures while an angel dictates" life-size and very fine, (except the angel, who is weak, and reminds one of a water nymph2;) in his pale manner.

6. Domenichino.

"St. Jerome is flagellated by an angel for preferring Cicero to the Hebrew writings:" also in the St. Onofrio. The Cicero, torn from his hand, lies at his feet. Here the saint is a young man, and the whole scene is represented as a vision.

7. But St. Jerome was comforted by visions of glory, as well as haunted by terrors and temptations. In the picture by Parmigiano, in our National Gallery, St. Jerome is sleeping in the background, while St. John the Baptist points upwards to a celestial vision of the Virgin and Child, seen in the opening heavens above: the upper part of this picture is beautiful, and full of dignity; but the saint is lying stretched on the earth in an attitude so uneasy and distorted, that it would seem as if he were condemned to do penance even in his sleep; and the St. John has always appeared to me mannered and theatrical.

87

St. Jerome and the Lion. (Coll' Antonio da Fiore.) Naples.

8. The story of the lion is often represented. St. Jerome is seated in his cell, attired in the monk's habit and cowl; the lion approaches, and lays his paw upon his knee; a cardinal's hat and books are lying

near him; and, to express the self-denial of the saint, a mouse is peeping into an empty cup. (87)1

In another example, by Vittore Carpaccio, the lion enters the cell, and three monks, attendants on St. Jerome, flee in terror.

9. The Last Communion of St. Jerome is the subject of one of the most celebrated pictures in the world, the St. Jerome of Domenichino, which has been thought worthy of being placed opposite to the Transfiguration of Raphael, in the Vatican. The aged saint - feeble, emaciated, dying—is borne in the arms of his disciples to the chapel of his monastery, and placed within the porch. A young priest sustains him; St. Paula, kneeling, kisses one of his thin bony hands; the saint fixes his eager eyes on the countenance of the priest, who is about to administer the sacrament, a noble dignified figure in a rich ecclesiastical dress; a deacon holds the cup, and an attendant priest the book and taper; the lion droops his head with an expression of grief; the eyes and attention of all are on the dying saint, while four angels, hovering above, look down upon the scene.

Agostino Caracci, in a grand picture now in the Bologna Gallery, had previously treated the same subject with much feeling and dramatic power: but here the saint is not so wasted and so feeble; St. Paula is not present, and the lion is tenderly licking his feet.

Older than either, and very beautiful and solemn, is a picture by Vittore Carpaccio, in which the saint is kneeling in the porch of a church, surrounded by his disciples, and the lion is seen outside.

10. "The Death of St. Jerome." In the picture by Starnina he is giving his last instructions to his disciples, and the expression of solemn grief in the old heads around is very fine. In a Spanish picture he is extended on a couch, made of hurdles, and expires in the arms of his monks.

In a very fine anonymous print, dated 1614, St. Jerome is dying alone in his cell; (this version of the subject is contrary to all authority and precedent:) he presses to his bosom the Gospel and the crucifix; the lion looks up in his face roaring, and angels bear away his soul to

heaven.

Kugler pronounces this to be a Flemish picture (v. "Handbook," p. 190.).

11. "The Obsequies of St. Jerome." In the picture by Vittore Carpaccio, the saint is extended on the ground before the high altar, and the priests around are kneeling in various attitudes of grief or devotion. The lion is seen on one side.1

I will mention here some other pictures in which St. Jerome figures as the principal personage.

St. Jerome introducing Charles V. into Paradise is the subject of a large fresco, by Luca Giordano, on the staircase of the Escurial.

St. Jerome conversing with two nuns, probably intended for St. Paula and St. Marcella.2

The sleep of St. Jerome. He is watched by two angels, one of whom, with his finger on his lip, commands

silence.3

It is worth remarking, that in the old Venetian pictures St. Jerome does not wear the proper habit and hat of a cardinal, but an ample scarlet robe, part of which is thrown over his head as a hood. (88)

The history of St. Jerome, in a series, is often found in the churches and convents of the Jeronymites, and generally consists of the following subjects, of which the fourth and sixth are often omitted:

1. He is baptized. 2. He receives the cardinal's hat from the Virgin. 3. He does penance in the desert, beating his breast with a stone.

4.

The three frescoes by Carpaccio are in the Church of San Giorgio de' Schiavoni at Venice.

2 It was in the Standish Gal. in the Louvre.

3 Engraved by Loli.

He meets St. Augustine. 5. He is studying or writing in a cell. 6. He builds the convent at Bethlehem. 7. He heals the wounded lion. 8. He receives the Last Sacrament. 9. He dies in the presence of his disciples. 10. He is buried.

Considering that St. Jerome has ever been venerated as one of the great lights of the Church, it is singular that so few churches are dedicated to him. There is one at Rome, erected, according to tradition, on the very spot where stood the house of Santa Paula, where she entertained St. Jerome during his sojourn at Rome in 382. For the high altar of this church, Domenichino painted his masterpiece of the Communion of St. Jerome already described. The embarkation of Saint Paula, to follow her spiritual teacher St. Jerome to the Holy Land, is the subject of one of Claude's most beautiful sea pieces, now in the collection of the Duke of Wellington; another picture of this subject, the figures as large as life is in the Brera, by a clever Cremonese painter, Guiseppe Bottoni.

St. Jerome has detained us long; the other Fathers are, as subjects of Art, much less interesting.

ST. AMBROSE.

Lat. S. Ambrosius. Ital. Sant' Ambrogio. Fr. St. Ambrose. Ger. Der Heilige Ambrosius. Patron Saint of Milan. April 4. A.D. 397.

WE can hardly imagine a greater contrast than between the stern, enthusiastic, dreaming, ascetic Jerome, and the statesman-like, practical, somewhat despotic AMBROSE. This extraordinary man, in whose person the priestly character assumed an importance and dignity till then unknown, was the son of a prefect of Gaul, bearing the same name, and was born at Treves in the year 340. It is said, that, when an infant in the cradle, a swarm of bees alighted on his mouth, without injuring him. The same story was told of Plato and of Archilochus, and considered prophetic of future eloquence. It is from this circumstance that St. Ambrose is represented with the bee-hive near him.