San Gerolamo: an obsessive theme

During my life I got that the repetitiveness of an artistic subject is somehow therapeutical. It helps to understand what changes in my mind, and what is kept. Saint Jerome is one of these repetitive themes. In the choice there is maybe a phenomena of self-identification.
He lived in syrian desert during the last corrupted and libertine phase of Roman Empire, mocked by people for his virginity and his foolish research of God through sufferences and privations.

Here the first version, did when I was 17 years old. The old saint surrounded by the desert and its ghosts. Looking it now it seems a bit satirical and ironic.

Here two quite dramatic latter versions: the saint (obviously bald) taken during a lonely conversation with God. The skull is one of traditional saint's attributes. Please notice that the object of Jerome's attention is perceived very far from him and from us. 

Finally my favorite one! I'm not sure, but I believe to remember I did this drawing while completely drunk. Now the object of the prayer is arrived: a little, winged angel, with a perfect and pure ass, pointed toward us. The divine roundness of his shapes contrasts with the angularity and pettiness of Jerome's body. He seems somehow surprised, although the extreme sufferings.
I'm proud of this little sketch; when I'm looking at it, depending on the mood, I find it ironic, disgusting, squalid, or highly religious!