Temptations of St Jerome
by VASARI, Giorgio, Oil on wood, 169 x 123 cm
Crowded, muscular, and electric with acid tints, this scene could not be further from classical Renaissance decorum. Yet, Vasari introduced the saint’s most conventional attributes from the lion at his feet, to the books representing Jerome’s translation of the Bible, to the red standing for his traditional cardinalate. The temptations swirling around him are more familial than carnal.