Saint Jerome Writing by Caravaggio: The Scholar and the Skull

In this article

A scholar facing a skull

Saint Jerome, the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin, sits at a table and reaches across with his pen to dip it in ink. Opposite him, on a pile of books, rests a skull. Caravaggio painted this horizontal composition around 1605 to 1606. It belongs to the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

An old man bent over his book

Bald old man with white beard bent over a book — An old man bent over his book.

Jerome is old and bald, with a white beard and a thin halo. His body is bare to the waist, wrapped in a red cloak. He looks down at his reading with total concentration.

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One arm crosses the whole picture

Long outstretched arm holding a pen over a book — One arm crosses the picture.

His outstretched arm draws a long line across the table, from his body to the pen hand, which almost touches the skull. The composition becomes a horizontal line between life and death.

The skull as a reminder

Skull resting on a book — The skull as a reminder.

The skull is a memento mori, a reminder that life is short. Its round shape echoes the saint’s bald head at the other end of the table, a visual rhyme between the living scholar and death.

White cloth hanging from the table edge — A glowing white cloth.

Below, a white cloth hangs from the table edge, glowing against the darkness.

Questions about Saint Jerome Writing

Where is it?

Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Is there another version?

Yes. Caravaggio painted another Saint Jerome Writing in Malta in 1607, now in St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta.

Why is there a skull?

It reminds the viewer of death and the shortness of life.

How large is it?

About 112 × 157 centimetres, oil on canvas.

Sources and image credit

Public-domain reproduction of Saint Jerome Writing (about 1605 to 1606), via Wikimedia Commons. Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.