The motif is the Church Father Jerome (342-4200) at the age of 90 asking to receive Extreme Unction. The weakened figure of Jerome is seen surrounded by his disciples and Saint Paula (347-404). They had accompanied Jerome when he left Rome and settled in Bethlehem. Paula was a learned woman. She admittedly died long before Jerome, but she had held a leading position in the group of women around him. And of the lion lying at the feet of Jerome, it is said that it became his faithful friend after he had removed a thorn from one of its paws.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, numerous artists were inspired by Domenichino’s painting The Last Communion of St Jerome. This was considered to be one of the most important works of art in Rome or even in Italy as a whole. The painting used to hang in the church of San Girolamo della Carità in the Via Giulia in Rome but is now in the Vatican. It was of quite fundamental importance that a painting should have a universal significance and express human passions and feelings. The figures’ gestures and positions are crucial to achieving this. Not only the artist who had painted the picture, but everyone who saw it should feel affected by it.
