ZOPPO, Marco
(b. 1433, Cento, d. 1478, Venezia)

The Penitent St Jerome

1465-66
Tempera on panel, 41 x 33 cm
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna

This panel shows St Jerome as penitent and scholar. Although it is assumed by some scholars that the panel belonged to the predella of the now-dismantled high altarpiece of the church of San Giovanni Battista in Pesaro, it was probably an independent picture executed for private devotion. The subject enjoyed popularity among the humanists and gained currency in northern Italy in the fifteenth century. Zoppo himself painted the subject more than once.