The composition of the present mosaic appears to be based on a painting of Saint Jerome by Vasari, executed for Ottaviano de' Medici around 1541, and known in a number of autograph versions (Corti, loc. cit.). As he discusses in his Autobiography, Vasari's Jerome is shown 'contemplating the death of Christ, who is before him on the cross. He is beating his breast to drive from his mind the things of Venus and the temptations of the flesh' (Milanesi, loc. cit.). These additional elements are not present in the mosaic, and the saint is not bare breasted, but the attitude of the figure, as well as the placement of the lion and the crucifix, are all strikingly similar. That it was not uncommon for micromosaics of this type to be based upon celebrated paintings is demonstrated by the signed and dated Ecce Homo of 1587 by Arminio Zuccato, which was sold in These Rooms on 19th December 1977, as lot 115, and which is directly copied from the painting of the same subject by Quentin Massys in the Doge's Palace in Venice, and presumably already there in the sixteenth century. In the present instance, the correspondence is less exact, and it may be that what the artist had at his disposal was a drawn version of the main elements of Vasari's composition. In the Autobiography, a visit to Venice is recorded immediately after the discussion of the Saint Jerome, so it is possible that that is how the composition came to be known there.
Giovanni Antonio Bianchini, the son of Vincenzo, was arguably the most talented member of the family dynasty of mosaicists. After having worked as an assistant of his father together with Giovanni di Mio on the Tree of Jesse mosaic in San Marco, he was named as a master in 1556. He worked on various other mosaic projects in connection with San Marco, and in 1568 was runner-up in a competition organised by the procurators of the basilica. His entry, a mosaic of Saint Jerome, is in the sacristy of San Marco, and confirms the attribution of the present lot.