St Jerome and a Donor

St Jerome and a DonorThe canvas is a fragment of a large altarpiece of which the lower left portion is now in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, and the upper portion in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Saint Jerome is dressed as a Cardinal and accompanied by his traditional symbol of a lion. He holds a church, which refers to his role as one of the four Fathers of the Church. At the left edge are the hand holding a balance and part of the drapery of a

In the finished ceiling

of the original in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp (inv

the figures silhouetted against the sky

An attribution to Callisto Piazza was proposed by Berenson

The identification of the sitter is traditional

both in the background architecture and in the foreground figures

But as she strikes the Christian hero

The smith is glimpsed next to a roaring furnace inside the building

The style and bravura handling are certainiy Fragonard's

but is probably a work of his studio

bears a full signature

It was acquired in 1719 by the French Regent