Hyeronimus: la huella de un viajero

Abstract

The text "Hyeronimus: The Trace of a Traveler" is an autobiographical and academic reflection in which the author, an artist and researcher, explores how Christian religious iconography—especially the figure of Saint Jerome—has influenced her personal life, spiritual formation, and artistic practice. Through a journey across churches, museums, and lived experiences, she describes how religious images served as fundamental tools of evangelization during the colonial period and how they left a deep imprint on the sensitivity, gestures, and spirituality of American believers, including herself. The narrative interweaves art history, personal memory, and symbolic analysis to reveal how Catholic visual heritage has shaped both collective imaginaries and individual subjectivities.

The research centers on Saint Jerome, a key figure in Christianity, commonly depicted as a penitent, scholar, and translator of the Bible. Through the study of his iconography in stained glass, paintings, and sculptures—from Bogotá to Madrid—the author draws parallels between her own spiritual quest and the life of the saint, who retreated to the desert for meditation. She emphasizes the role of sacred art as a pedagogical and spiritual control device, placing her analysis within the broader context of colonization and the Counter-Reformation. This project also serves as a critical act of introspection, questioning religious teachings internalized during childhood and adolescence, showing how art helps to understand and reconfigure the cultural traces left on the body and memory.