[1] The work was commissioned on 3 January 1526 in Rome, by Maria Bufalini, wife of Antonio Caccialupi, to decorate the family chapel in the church of San Salvatore in Lauro.

The elongated shape derives from its original destination as part of a triptych, the side panels (never painted) of which would have represented The Immaculate Conception (to which the chapel was dedicated) and the Saints Joachim and Anna.

Correggio's Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (Louvre} may have inspired St Jerome's pose with his feet forward, head tilted backwards and his body at once vertical and horizontal.

In Correggio's painting, the naked love goddess Venus is sleeping in the same pose as Jerome, seen from the same sharp angle, her feet towards the picture plane and her body vertical on the canvas.

[4] The foreground of the picture is dominated by St. John the Baptist, identified by the long cross and the baptismal wash basin tied at his belt.

While staring intently at the viewer his exaggeratedly long finger points backwards and upwards to the Virgin and Child, who are seated in a burst of light against dark grey storm clouds.