As you enter the fascinating Frick Collection - a labyrinth-like art museum held in the former mansion of Henry Clay Frick - you come across some of the best–known paintings by some of the greatest European artists in history. Among the paintings, major works of sculpture, eighteenth-century French furniture and porcelains, enamels, oriental rugs, and other works of remarkable quality (like mansions own rich architecture, neoclassical design, and elegant decorations), you come across the most eye-catching painting in the collection: "St. Jerome as Cardinal." This portrait can be found in the mansion's Living Hall, which is one of the nineteen rooms displaying art in the collection. This room only displays portraits of a single person; instead of presenting group portraits or portraits of un-personified subjects.
             High in the center of the Living Hall, painted by El Greco, stands the portrait of St. Jerome as a Cardinal. This centerpiece painted around 1590-1600 depicts a fourth-century Roman Scholar dressed in the robe of a cardinal and resting his hands on the "Vulgate" his Latin translation of the Bible. In fact, as explained by the museum's Acostguide Inform Audio Tour, St. Jerome spent many years of his life devoted to the scriptures, translating the Greek and Hebrew writings into Latin. Furthermore, it is believed that he lived as an ascetic in the desert praying for what he thought would forgive him for his love of pagan writings.
             St. Jerome's non-expressive, elongated face and long beard set the serious tone denoted in the room. Due to where and how it is displayed (above eye level and lit as if it were on center stage), the painting tends to attract the attention of visitors before the other portraits do so. Aside from these facts, the painting's illuminating colors tend to glow out of the portrait like a neon sign. The bright red of his robe pierces the eye as it pops out towards you from the pitch-black background,...