Francesco Botticini, 'Scenes from the Life of Saint Jerome: Predella', about 1490

Francesco Botticini’s S. Gerolamo Altarpiece is named after Saint Jerome (who appears at its centre) and S. Girolamo in Fiesole, the church dedicated to him where it originally stood. This is its predella – a horizontal board which is positioned below the main panel of an altarpiece, and typically shows scenes from the lives of the saints depicted above it.

Saint Jerome (Gerolamo or Girolamo in Italian), a fourth-century theologian, is best known for his translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek into Latin. The four images here show famous episodes from his life: Jerome removing a thorn from a lion’s paw; his vision of being beaten for enjoying pagan literature; his death; and his appearance with Saint John the Baptist to Saint Augustine. The coats of arms of the altarpiece’s patron appear at either end of the predella.

The first scene is probably the best known. Saint Jerome, identified by his halo, is attending to a lion. Another friar, frightened of the animal, sprints towards the monastery where others hide. Jerome had recognised that the lion approached because it was injured, and cured it by removing a thorn from its paw. Many painters depict the lion as the saint’s companion, as Botticini has in the main panel of the altarpiece – but the predella panel gave the artist the chance to further explore this miraculous encounter between man and animal. When the Florentine artists Fra Filippo Lippi and Pesellino were tasked with depicting a scene from the life of Saint Jerome for the predella of the Trinity Altarpiece, they selected the same episode: Saint Jerome and the Lion.

The second scene – which is derived from the Golden Legend, a thirteenth-century collection of saints' lives – is much rarer. It is probably based on the predella of an altarpiece by Zanobi Strozzi that also came from S. Girolamo (now in the Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon). The Golden Legend describes how Jerome was dissatisfied with the writings of the prophets of the Old Testament and occasionally preferred pagan authors – much to the dismay of God. One night, while reading Plato and Cicero, Jerome was overcome by a severe fever. Near death, he was brought before God and beaten for his wrongdoing. He swore to renounce any non-Christian writings and awoke, bearing the injuries of his punishment.

The third predella epsiode repeats the basic composition of the second. A small group is gathered round the bier on which Jerome’s body has been placed. A priest reads a final prayer while friars mourn the saint’s death. The final scene shows Saint Augustine, who while writing an epistle to Saint Jerome has been interrupted by a vision of Jerome in the company of Saint John the Baptist.