Abstract
CARPACCIO'S painting of an ecclesiastical scholar in an oratory (Fig. 3), which hangs in the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni in Venice to the right of two scenes from the life of St. Jerome, has been universally referred to as a representation of St. Jerome. Apparently no interpretative description prior to Ruskin's of 1884 exists,1 and no document dating from Carpaccio's period of activity has been found that refer to the painting, or, for that matter, to any of the paintings of the cycle.2 The subject matter is to be inferred only from the contents of the painting itself and from its position in the series, both of which present incongruities if the seated figure is considered to be St. Jerome.