Saint Jerome, the chief inspiration for Christian penitents and for hermits, is represented in the wilderness beating his breast with a stone while contemplating a wooden cross.

Cima's paintings are similar in style and technique to those by his fellow Venetian, Giovanni Bellini. An earlier painting of this subject by Bellini is also in the Collection ('Saint Jerome reading in a Landscape').

The carved tabernacle frame, as hung in the gallery, is north Italian, perhaps Venetian, of the second half of the 16th century. The more minute ornament is painted in gold.