The canvas is a fragment of a large altarpiece of which the lower left portion is now in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, and the upper portion in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Saint Jerome is dressed as a Cardinal and accompanied by his traditional symbol of a lion. He holds a church, which refers to his role as one of the four Fathers of the Church. At the left edge are the hand holding a balance and part of the drapery of a figure of Saint Michael trampling the Devil (whose forearm appears at the bottom). The altarpiece was painted for Antonio and Girolamo Petrobelli for their chapel in the church of San Francesco at Lendinara near Rovigo. The donor in the Dulwich fragment is Girolamo (d.1587). An inscription on the stone altar of the chapel bore the date 1563 and, though usually dated later, the altarpiece was presumably painted at approximately the same time.
