“Two things I have to notice in the painting of this glorious Saint: the first in his penance in the desert, which is the most common, and the second in his cardinal’s costume, and Fray Joseph de Cigüenza, the distinguished writer of his History and of his Order, will give us enough light on both, which he took from his own Epistles. And, as for the first, of penance, referred to by the Saint himself, when he paints himself wounding himself with a stone on his breasts, all naked and barefoot, I note that the saints loved honesty very much, and it is not necessary to undress him to the chest, even to his shoes, because it is enough to uncover that part, leaving the rest dressed in sackcloth, as he says, that painters seem rather show off the difficulty of their art than to conform to reason and truth, and it is known that, when this happened to St. Geronimo, he was a young man of thirty years more or less, and is improperly painted as an old man; Which, being so well received and used, does not seem to be remediable; but it is good to know this truth, so that if he offers to describe his life by the steps of it, and to give him the exercises that belong to each part of age [. …] Where it is seen that he recalls the epistle that he wrote while he was in the wilderness, doing penance, being thirty years old and called mochacho. A skull, crucifix or cross or Calvary, and a trumpet were painted on his ear, for the continuous memory of death and the final judgment, and many books, because in that solitude he was helped by his studies, together with the mortification of his flesh. And they are also to be kept for another occasion when he paints himself writing and studying languages, as he always exercised it. […] He is painted with a venerable white beard, tan in colour, seventy-eight years old […]”.

“Dos cosas tengo que advertir en la pintura deste glorioso Santo: la una en su penitencia en el desierto, que es la más común, y la segunda en su traje de cardenal, y en ambas nos dará bastante luz Fray Josefe de Cigüenza insigne escritor de su Historia y de su Orden; la cual sacó de sus mesmas Epistolas. Y, cuanto a la primera, de la penitencia, referida por el mesmo Santo, cuando se pinta hiriéndose con una piedra en los pechos, todo desnudo y descalzo, advierto que los santos amaron muncho la honestidad, y no es necesario para darse en el pecho, desnudarlo hasta los zapatos, porque basta descubrir aquella parte, dexando lo demás vestido de un saco, como él dice, que antes parece ostentar los pintores lo dificultoso de su arte, que conformarse con la razón y verdad, y, es de saber que, cuando le sucedía esto a San Gerónimo, era mozo de treinta años poco más o menos y se pinta viejo impropriamente; lo cual, por estar tan recebido y usado, no parece remediable; pero es bien saber esta verdad, para si se ofrece pintar su vida por los pasos della, y dalle los exercicios que a cada parte de edad pertenecen; […] Donde se ve, que hace memoria de la epistola que escribió estando en el yermo, haciendo penitencia, siendo de treinta años y se llama mochacho. Pintasele una calavera, Crucifixo o Cruz o Calvario y una trompeta al oido, por la continua memoria de la muerte y juicio final, y munchos libros, porque en aquella soledad le ayudaban los estudios, junto con la motificación de su carne. Y también se han de guardar para otra ocasión donde se pinta escribiendo y estudiando lenguas, pues siempre lo exercitaba. […] Pintese con venerable barba blanca, color tostado, de setenta y ocho anos de edad […]”.