_Antonello da Messina_ (Venetian: 1444-1493).
A celebrated little picture, with a long critical history, for as early
as 1529 the writer known as the "_anonimo_ of Morelli" mentions it as
being variously attributed to Van Eyck, to Memlinc, and to Antonello,
while he himself ascribed it tentatively to "Jacometto" (Jacopo de'
Barbari). The influence of the Flemish School is obvious, says Sir
Edward Poynter, "in the Gothic character of the architecture, the
general arrangement of the picture, and the finish of the details. But
the head of the saint has an energy of character highly characteristic
of Antonello, and the buildings in the glimpse of landscape seen
through the window on the left are distinctly Italian in character"
(_The National Gallery_, i. 14). It is interesting to compare this
picture with the version of the same subject commonly ascribed to
Bellini (694). Observe, here, "the lion walking along the cloister,
holding up a suffering paw, and the puss curled up on a platform at
the saint's feet. Evidently this St. Jerome was a lover of animals,
and, like Canon Liddon, more especially of cats" ("The Beasts of the
National Gallery," by Sophia Beale, in _Good Words_, July 1895).