The richness and clarity of the printed lines speak for this being one of the earliest impressions pulled from the plate. It is one of the young Dürer's most ambitious early engravings, in which he attempted to combine his experience of Italian form and northern attention to detail. Saint Jerome, the first translator of the Bible and often portrayed as a scholar in his study (Dürer did so three times), is shown here during his period of penitential devotion in the desert, worshiping a small crucifix and accompanied by his faithful lion (from whose paw Jerome had extracted a thorn).
