Sveti Jeronim na slikama u rimskoj crkvi San Girolamo dei Croati [San Girolamo nei dipinti della chiesa romana di San Girolamo dei Croati]

St. Jerome in the frescoes and paintings of the church of San Girolamo dei Croati in Rome. The constellation of the Roman national churches was one of the key stages in the early modern period when the identities of the numerous immigrant groups in the papal city were created and reshaped. Their similarities and differences were emphasised and identity codes gradually crystallised. Given the importance of the narrative shaped in Rome for the creation of the Illyrian/Schiavonian early modern identity, the analysis of the works of art depicting Saint Jerome as a national saint created for the church of San Girolamo dei Croati/Schiavoni/Illyrici is crucial. The frescoes by the Sistine painters in the church of St Jerome position the Church Father as an excellent theologian, translator and reformer of ecclesiastical organisation, unswervingly loyal to Rome. The layers of their interpretation point to the identification of Sixtus with the native of Stridon, since the Pope worked on the new edition of the Vulgata, reorganised the Curia and the postal service and established the papal printing press. Jerome is at the centre of the Illyrian pantheon, enriched by the patron saints of the archdiocese of Split and the Slavic apostles: the aim was undoubtedly to portray the Dalmatians as propagators of the faith among the Slavic peoples. Therefore, the innovative depictions of the life of St Jerome and the 'Illyrian' saints are undoubtedly the result of the needs and suggestions of Roman Schiavoni, together with papal self-promotion and the Curia's efforts to consolidate Catholic positions in post-Tridentine Europe. The 1632 altarpiece St Jerome Hears the Trumpet of the Last Judgement, by the Roman painter Giuseppe Puglia, shows a different religious temperature and a more universal message, with a more subtle iconographic innovation than the Sistine frescoes in the same church. While the sixteenth-century frescoes in the presbytery depict the Church Father in the cave loudly debating with the schismatics, Puglia's composition is a transcendental experience of the trumpet of the Last Judgement, simultaneously audible and inaudible, but clearly reminding us that the terrible fate of the heretics has already been decided.