A panel from the altar of the church of San Marco. Saint Jerome was a learned priest who translated almost the entire Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin. The man was contradictory, he cared for the poor and the outcast, but he was also quick-tempered and devoted to arguments, so after violent debates he had every reason to blame himself for the sin of pride. In redemption, he beat himself with a stone in the chest, – a method of repentance, portrayed by Botticelli in this picture. When the work of the artist was seen by Pope Sixtus V, he said that Jerome correctly did that he took a stone in his hands, otherwise hardly anyone would consider him a saint. As usual, Botticelli painted on the narrow board a whole scene framed by the architecture and the view of the distant city, obviously Rome, where Jerome was the papal secretary.
La pénitence de Saint Jérôme – Sandro Botticelli 
Saint Jerome by Jusepe de Ribera 
Saint Jerome. Engraving by Peter Brueghel 
The altar of San Marco, or the Coronation of Mary with the angels, the Evangelist John and St. Augustine, Jerome and Eligius by Sandro Botticelli 
Miracle of St. Eligia by Sandro Botticelli 
St. Jerome in the desert by Jacopo Bassano 
Saint Jérôme – Hussepe de Ribera 
St. Augustine, writing in his cell by Sandro Botticelli