1-156-102 - Art Media/Heritage Images

'St Jerome's Dream', c1600. St Jerome (c340-420), one of the four great Fathers of the Christian church who translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin and who worked on the translation of Gospels into Latin, dreamed he was in the presence of God. He was asked to identify himself, to which he replied that he was a follower of Jesus. God told him he was a liar and that he was a Ciceronian. After this, Jerome ceased reading Latin authors and turned all his energies to translating the Bible. The artist shows the Christ enthroned, the Virgin Mary looking down on Jerome being beaten by angels. From the collection of the Louvre, Paris.