school of Martin Schongauer
German, c. 1430/50-1491
The Battle of St. James The Greater at Clavijo
INV-4019
school of Martin Schongauer
German, c. 1430/50-1491n.d.
The Battle of St. James The Greater at Clavijo
school of Martin Schongauer German, c. 1430/50-1491 →engravingprint
Date
n.d.
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Sheet trimmed within platemark: 28.7 × 42.3 cm (11 5/16 × 16 11/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
Saint James the Greater (died a.d. 44) was one of Christ’s apostles and the patron saint of Spain. He was said to have miraculously appeared, sword in hand, to help the Christian Spaniards defeat a Muslim army in a.d. 844—a battle that in fact never happened. The scene here abounds in gritty details such as the beheaded enemy corpse and various dismembered limbs. The saint wears a scallop shell on his hat, an allusion to the sign pilgrims wore on their long journey to revere his relics at the Spanish cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
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