Circle of SEBASTIÃN MARTÃNEZ DOMEDEL (Jaén, around 1615 - Madrid, 1667)."Penitent St. Jerome".Oil on canvas. It presents repainting and jumps in the painting.Size: 82 x 108,5 cm.In this canvas we see Saint Jerónimo during his penitence in the desert, in an open rocky environment in the central zone and on the left side. The saint appears covered with a red mantle, next to the lion, resting his hands on a large book. One of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church, St. Jerome was born near Aquileia (Italy) in 347. Trained in Rome, he was an accomplished rhetorician and polyglot. Baptized at the age of nineteen, between 375 and 378 he retired to the Syrian desert to lead an anchorite's life. He returned to Rome in 382 and became a collaborator of Pope Damasus. One of the most frequent representations of this saint is his penance in the desert. His attributes are the stone he uses to beat his chest and the skull on which he meditates. Also the cardinal's cape (or a red mantle), although he was never a cardinal, and the tamed lion. The latter comes from a story of the "Golden Legend", where it is narrated that one day, when he was explaining the Bible to the monks of his convent, he saw a lion coming with a limp. He removed the thorn from its paw, and from then on he kept it in his service, instructing it to look after his donkey while it grazed. Some merchants stole the donkey, and the lion recovered it, returning it to the saint without hurting the animal.Sebastián Martínez Domedel, a follower of Murillo's school is located by Palomino in Jaén, training with Antonio García Reinoso. He would arrive in Madrid after Velázquez died (so it would not have been possible for him to learn with him), city where he would die in 1667, without means. Experts suppose that he may have studied in Cordoba, in the workshop of Juan Luis Zambrano, or with Antonio del Castillo (which would explain his dedication to landscapes), although it is possible that he was trained in Jaen, as already mentioned. A trip to Madrid in 1661 is documented, to visit the Royal Collections of El Escorial, commissioned by the cathedral chapter of Jaén, with the aim of copying some painting for the Altarpiece of the Holy Face of that building.Some documented works of the master are preserved, which show an eclectic and somewhat uneven artist, who frequently uses prints for his inspiration and copies, with some skill, old masters, also imitating some of his contemporaries. It is possible to find paintings by him in several private collections, mainly Spanish, as well as in the Church of San Ginés in Madrid, in the convent of Corpus Christi in Córdoba, in the Museum of Jaén, in the Prado Museum in Madrid, in the Cathedral of Jaén, etc.