3-098-311 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Apostle James on horseback, 1649. Alternative title: Saint James the Moor Slayer. Santiago Matamoros is the popular name given to the iconographic representation of the apostle James the Greater when depicted as a knight in combat against the Moors, as described in medieval chronicles. According to these chronicles, he miraculously intervened on behalf of the Christians against the Muslims during the Battle of Clavijo, supposedly on May 23, 844. In reality, it is a legendary event created centuries later, incorporating aspects of the real Battle of Monte Laturce of 859.