Saint Jerome Penitent, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1605. Oil on canvas, 145.5 × 101.5 cm. Museum of Montserrat.
Caravaggio (1571-1610) was a complete innovator in the painting of his day with his new naturalistic sensibility and his vision grounded in chiaroscuro. The figure of the old man in a meditative attitude, illuminated harshly by a single light source and only half-covered by a white cloth and red blanket, stands out from the darkness of the suggestively realistic background. There are only four Caravaggios in Spain which can be confidently attributed to this painter; three are in Madrid. The one in Montserrat is the only one that can be seen in Catalonia.
