3-072-071 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Saint James the Apostle, c1360. The Apostle with his attributes: a sword (James died a martyr's death, beheaded by a sword) and a pilgrim's staff and a shell. These two attributes are associated with the transfer of the body of St. James from Jerusalem to Compostela in Spain in the seventh century. This town, henceforth called Santiago de Compostela, became a center of worship of the Saint. The saint holds a scroll in his hand with an inscription that is a fragment of the profession of faith: 'Ascendit ad celos sedet dextram dei patris omnipotentis' ('He ascended to heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Almighty Father'). At the top of the triangular frame of the painting there is an inscription in Catalan: 'St. James called the Elder, beheaded in Jerusalem'.