Spanish school; second half of the 17th century.

Spanish school; second half of the XVII century.
"Santiago Apostle".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has frame of the nineteenth century.
Measurements: 32 x 26 cm; 45 x 39 cm (frame).
Devotional portrait starring St. James the Apostle. It is an imposing portrait by the rotundity, the monumentality and the volume of its forms. The shells on his chest indicate that it is the apostle Santiago. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the staff that he carries in one of his hands is a symbol of the apostolic mission, of spreading the message of Christ, that Jesus bequeathed to his apostles. In the Bible he is usually referred to under the name of James, a term that passed into Latin as Iacobus and derived in names such as Iago, Tiago and Santiago (sanctus Iacobus). James of Zebedee or James the Greater was one of the first disciples to shed his blood and die for Jesus. Member of a family of fishermen, brother of John the Evangelist -both nicknamed Boanerges ('Sons of Thunder'), because of their impulsive temperaments- and one of the three disciples closest to Jesus Christ, the apostle James was not only present at two of the most important moments in the life of the Christian Messiah - the transfiguration on Mount Tabor and the prayer in the Garden of Olives - but was also part of the restricted group that witnessed his last miracle, his resurrected appearance on the shores of Lake Tiberias. After the death of Christ, Santiago, passionate and impetuous, was part of the initial group of the primitive Church of Jerusalem and, in his evangelizing work, he was awarded, according to medieval traditions, the Spanish peninsular territory, specifically the northwestern region, then known as Gallaecia. Some theories suggest that the current patron saint of Spain arrived in the northern lands by the uninhabited coast of Portugal. Others, however, draw his way through the Ebro valley and the Cantabrian Roman road and there are even those who claim that Santiago reached the Peninsula by the current Cartagena, from where he headed his journey to the western corner of the map.