The new book by one of the leading art historians in Croatia, Dr. Joško Belamarić, has emerged as a companion monograph to the exhibition prepared by the author at the Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments in Split (April-June 2021). This significant exhibition crowned a series of events related to the national celebration of the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome. The material presented at the exhibition receives a comprehensive and rounded treatment in this monograph, which confidently and expertly interprets the cultural phenomenon of St. Jerome in Renaissance Dalmatia. The book focuses on the Hermitage of St. Jerome on Marjan Hill near Split. It was the most important sanctuary dedicated to St. Jerome in Dalmatia, emerging where an ancient Roman sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Diana once stood. In his study, the author outlines the true "renovatio" of the sacred space of Marjan that took place during the 15th century. During this time, possibly through a coordinated effort, the churches of St. Jerome and Our Lady of Bethlehem were built in a short period. In their immediate vicinity, the chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, the Church of St. John the Evangelist, and the Church of the Hermitage of St. Nicholas de Seranda were renovated. These five churches are associated with the name of the Dalmatian sculptor of Albanian origin, Andrija Aleši. His chisel, guided by the noble spirit of a skilled master, left a lasting mark on the most beautiful part of Marjan.

Belamarić's book explains the spread of the cult of St. Jerome along the Croatian coast during the 15th and 16th centuries in its various versions. The significance of St. Jerome as a national saint and the protector of Dalmatia is reflected in a series of artworks, some of which belong to the most important works of this kind in the monumental Croatian heritage of the Renaissance period (Gentile Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio, Andrija Aleši, Nikola Firentinac, Franjo Čučić, Tripun Bokanić, etc.). A particular chapter is dedicated to reliefs depicting St. Jerome in the desert, ingeniously combining two motifs: St. Jerome as a penitent and St. Jerome in his study. This iconographic model of St. Jerome's portrayal entered Dalmatian art from the Venetian-Paduan circle through the mediation of Nikola Firentinac and Andrija Aleši. The study also interprets other iconographic patterns of representing St. Jerome during the Renaissance, which corresponded to patrons' various desires and ideas. These depictions manifest the veneration of St. Jerome as a translator of the Holy Scriptures and an ecclesiastical teacher par excellence, as a scholar and hermit, as an exemplar of penance and monastic poverty, as a humble yet powerful protector of the Church, and as a patron of parish and religious communities.

-review by Dr. Milan Pelc