Among Drer's depiction of St.

Jerome, this is the one more resembling a portrait, with little space left for the study and its details (such as in his 1514 etching,
where the saint is a small figure in the background). The subject is portrayed with great care for details, including the wrinkles to the white-yellowish beard. Also
differently from the etching, the memento mori suggestion of the finger above a skull has a greater visual relevance.
Details in the foreground include the inkpot at right and the bookrest at left, as well as a crucifix on the top left.

Saint Jerome in His Study (German: Der heilige Hieronymus im Gehus) is an engraving of 1514 by the German artist Albrecht Drer. Saint Jerome is shown
sitting behind his desk, engrossed in work. The table, on the corner of which is a cross, is typical of the Renaissance. An imaginary line from Jerome's head passing
through the cross would arrive at the skull on the window ledge, as if contrasting death and the Resurrection. The lion in the foreground is part of the
traditional iconography of St. Jerome, and near it is a sleeping dog, an animal found frequently in Drer's works, symbolizing loyalty. Both creatures are part of
Jerome's story in the Golden Legend (c. 1260), which contained fanciful hagiographies of saints.
St. Jerome in His Study is often considered as part of a group of three Drer engravings, the other two being the well-known Melencolia I (1514) and Knight,
Death and the Devil (1513). Together they have been viewed as representing the three spheres of activity recognized in medieval times: Knight, Death, and the
Devil belongs to the moral sphere and the "active life"; Melencolia I represents the intellectual; and St. Jerome the theological and contemplative life.
The composition is intimate, but the viewer has difficulty locating himself in relation to the picture's space. Thomas Puttfarken suggests that while the scene is very
close to the observer, Drer did not intend the viewer to feel present: "the intimacy is not ours, but the saint's as he is engrossed in study and meditation" (94). Art
historian Erwin Panofsky comments on the perspective:
The position of the sight point, quite far off centre, strengthens the impression of a representation determined not by the objective law of the architecture but by the
subjective standpoint of the spectator who is just entering a representation which owes to precisely this perspective arrangement a large part of its peculiarly
'intimate' effect. (Qtd. in Puttfarken, 94)